Don’t Believe the Anti-Hype

We’re hearing a lot lately about how Florida might never return to the good old days of booming commercial real estate values and stabilized occupancy. The experts aren’t buying any of that.

“Florida has always been very volatile in its cycles. We’ve always gone down hard, but we’ve always come back strong,” Larry Richey, senior managing director with Cushman & Wakefield in Tampa, told me for an upcoming article in Real Estate Forum. He sees absolutely no reason why the Sunshine State can’t rebound and regain as quickly as in past downturns.

Hooters: A Family Affair

Coby Brooks, the CEO of Hooters of America gives the impression that he’s a family guy. So he probably understands the risk he’s taking bringing in outsiders to run one of the world’s most successful restaurant concepts, which is hurting in the downturn like so many other casual dining chains.

Brooks, featured just last weekend on the new CBS reality show “Undercover Boss,” sent a letter to real estate and food industry executives this week attempting to quell rumors that the family business is about to be sold. The letter states that the company is “engaged in the financial market to find the right partner or partners” for Hooters, according to this story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

JLL Ramps Up Miami Industrial

Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle is increasing its industrial expertise in the Miami market by hiring three leading industrial brokers. Steve Medwin and Harry Wardell are joining the firm as executive vice presidents, while Nick Wigoda joins as vice president.

“Adding these three high-caliber industrial experts to our current industrial team will make for a powerful combination to provide a full range of industrial services to clients throughout South Florida,” says Kurt Keaton, JLL market director for Florida. The new hires will join the existing industrial team to provide expert counsel to individuals and companies leasing, purchasing, developing and disposing of industrial properties throughout South Florida and across the US.

Amendment 4 Showdown at UF

The University of Florida, normally recognized as the home of football and basketball champions, will be the venue for a key real estate debate this month. A leading expert on growth management will host a discussion on Amendment 4 on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service on the Gainesville campus.

Bob Rhodes, Florida’s former growth management administrator, will lead the discussion of Amendment 4, which he calls the “elephant in the growth management policy room.” The referendum on the November ballot would require approval of all local government comprehensive plans and plan amendments by voters before becoming effective, part of a wider direct democracy movement that gives citizens a larger say in land use planning.

Florida Must Change, And More

As my e-mail inbox fills up almost as fast as I can read everything, there are some items that are too good to put aside. Here are a few examples:
• Sean Snaith’s latest commentary in the University of Central Florida’s latest state and metro forecast makes a point many of us might have missed during the ongoing recession: Florida has long depended on population growth to fuel our economy, and now that wellspring appears to be drying up.

“The state was succeeding despite itself,” says Snaith, director of UCF’s Institute for Economic Competitiveness. “Then the housing boom went bust and population not only stopped robustly growing, it actually started to decline.”

Opening the History Book

Want to learn how commercial real estate in the Orlando market got to where it is today? Mark your calendar for the afternoon of Thursday, Jan. 28.

The local chapter of NAIOP will host “The History of Commercial Real Estate in Central Florida” at the History Center, 65 E. Central Blvd. Doug Irmscher of Duke Realty Corp. will moderate the discussion, with participants including Jim Brown, Ted Bywater, Larry Church, Woody Coley, Sandy Dann, Bill Donegan, Charles Gray, Trevor Hall Jr., Thomas Kohler, George Livingston and Egerton van den Berg.

The program is scheduled from 3-5 p.m., followed by a cocktail reception. The cost is $45 for NAIOP members or $65 for non-members. For more details, call NAIOP Central Florida at (407) 227-7461.

Beale, Bishop Forge New Bond

Oftentimes in commercial real estate, responding to opportunity means joining forces. That’s exactly what two industry veterans have done in the Central Florida market.

Michael Beale and Billy Bishop recently formed BishopBeale, a full-service commercial advisory firm based near Downtown Orlando. The longtime acquaintances combine at least four decades of industry experience, along with more than $200 million worth of investments and commercial properties.

Rothstein May Face Eviction

The former law firm of embattled attorney Scott Rothstein firm didn’t pay rent on its Miami office in November, and the landlord either wants the money or the space, Terry Sheridan writes in the Daily Business Review, an ALM publication.

Blue Capital US East Coast Properties asked for almost $23,000 on 7,300 square feet leased by Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler at Bank of America Tower at International Place. It seeks a decision on whether the firm’s bankruptcy trustee will keep or abandon the space.

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.

Rubbing a Genie Lamp

The so-called “great recession” may be over by now, but the recovery process will still take some time, says a University of Central Florida economist. Sean Snaith, director of the UCF Institute for Economic Competitiveness in Orlando, likens the recovery to a “genie lamp” rather than a “gravy boat,” reflecting the longer recovery period that will likely last into 2011.

“We are now in the recovery/rehabilitation phase after the economy’s treatment for the credit infarction,” Snaith writes in the center’s most recent US forecast. “The economy is not out of the intensive care unit, but still in serious condition. The quadruple policy bypass performed by the Federal Reserve Bank and the federal government did indeed save the economy from a much more dire fate, but the recovery from this trauma will be slower than many had hoped it would be.”