Industrial Isn’t That Bad … Yet

A veteran industrial broker has a few things to say about Susan Ruby’s recent column for GlobeSt.com observing whether the industrial sector has bottomed out in Florida. Ted Bywater, chairman of Orlando-based Bywater Co., has a deeper perspective on the sector dating back to the mid-1970s downturn.

“In those days, there was almost no business. No one was moving into town and no one was expanding,” Bywater recalls. Even after an Orlando economic development group placed ads in the Wall Street Journal offering warehouse space for sale as low as $7 per square foot, there were still no takers, he says.

Seminoles Put On Pressure

The Seminole Tribe of Florida, which already has a potentially lucrative gambling pact with Gov. Charlie Crist, is trying to convince the state Legislature to approve it. Their message, in so many words: We want it all and we want it now!

James Allen, CEO of gaming operations for the Seminoles, made the tribe’s wishes known at the Florida Gaming Summit on Tuesday in Hollywood, as covered by the Miami Herald. Lawmakers might have heard him better had he made his remarks in Tallahassee, but Hollywood just seems a friendlier venue to make an argument for more gambling, doesn’t it?

Part of a Bigger Picture

An apartment complex in Florida is among eight properties listed for sale by San Diego-based Trigild Inc. The 232-unit Blanding Place is located in Orange Park.

Trigild was appointed receiver of the properties, most of which are in Arizona, after Irvine, CA-based Bethany Group abandoned them last spring. The nearly 3,000 units represent $250 million in defaulted loans.

Year One Done, and Many More

Happy Birthday, Commercial Grove! It’s been an entire year since the fine folks at GlobeSt.com unleashed this blog. We’ll try to pass around enough cake so you don’t wind up like Milton.

• Even after an entire year, one of the most popular items on this blog is an early one about the prospect of Trader Joe’s opening stores in Florida. Much to my surprise, people are such fans of the retailer that they seek out any information they can find and they invariably wind up here.

Can Obama Control Wall Street?

Florida is a long way from Wall Street, yet what happens up there definitely affects the way things are done down here. Now President Barack Obama is attempting to pull back the reins on the bulls and bears.

In a Monday speech at New York City’s Federal Hall, covered by GlobeSt.com, Obama said pointedly that “the old ways that led to this crisis cannot stand” and that Wall Street can no longer rely on taxpayer bailouts when risks go bad. He also touted the most ambitious overhaul of the financial system since the Great Depression, though he didn’t offer specifics.

Heading to Capitol Hill

Sometimes it takes a while for Congress to catch on to an impending crisis, but now commercial real estate has finally caught its collective attention. In case you missed it, my colleague Erika Morphy covered the topic at GlobeSt.com.

Basically, the commercial mortgage market is seen as the other shoe to drop for a banking system already strained by tons of residential loans gone bad. It could be up to Congress to take action, not necessarily a bailout but something that would stem the perceived hurricane of debt coming due over the next few years.

Why Promissory Notes Are Necessary

Here are some interesting thoughts from Mario Iglesias, a real estate attorney with Roetzel & Andress in Fort Lauderdale who recently penned this column for GlobeSt.com. He points out that a large number of foreclosures in Florida have been abandoned because of the widespread failure of foreclosing lenders to produce original promissory notes.

“A plaintiff must produce to the court the original promissory note as a condition before obtaining a mortgage foreclosure judgment,” Iglesias says. “Florida has a well-developed law that helps plaintiffs judicially establish a lost note in foreclosure cases when the lender in good faith has either lost the note or it was stolen or destroyed. However, in many of the cases we are seeing today, some lenders cannot even produce anyone from their institutions who can swear under oath that the institution came into possession of the original note.”

A Few Notes Before the Fourth

Before I take off for a three-day Fourth of July weekend of fireworks, barbecue and guitar-pickin’, please allow me to clean off my desk a bit:

• Florida’s hotels always find a way to fill up for special occasions, no matter how bad the economy gets. A report from the Miami Herald shows few rooms remain available heading into this weekend, and those will likely be taken up by locals at the last minute.

If you had any hopes against crowded beaches and theme parks because of the recession, forget about it. People still find a way to dig into their savings for family fun, allowing personal sanity to overrule finances. And people still love Florida, but they love discounted pricing on rooms even more.

Space Race in Downtown Miami

Last week, we published an update on the status of Brickell Financial Centre, which was subject to rumors that work had stopped there because its cranes were coming down. Now, with office leasing activity slowing, we’re hearing that it’s more important for developers to finish construction first, regardless of whether any deals are signed by the time they open.

The 35-story 1450 Brickell building has announced that its curtain-wall system is more than 50% complete, theoretically putting it ahead of its competing building’s progress. Developer Rilea Group says it plans to be ready for occupancy early next year, at least six months ahead of Brickell Financial Centre.

Trader Joe’s Times Three?

The latest rumor in the effort to lure Trader Joe’s to Florida is that the Monrovia, CA-based grocer will open three stores on the same day here. No details yet on where or when, though conventional wisdom says South Florida would be a prime start.

As usual, Trader Joe’s officials will neither confirm nor deny anything. Yet retail brokers in the know say the company is still looking closely at the Sunshine State. Stay tuned.