spec buildings underway in the Toronto market and
has pulled permits to erect three more buildings.
“The Orlando Corp. is no longer alone; starting in
January 2014 and going through the next 18 months,
the Toronto industrial market will see 9. 5 million
square feet of new development,” says Alves.
How far has Toronto come back? According to
Alves, at the height of the boom in 2005 and 2006,
the market saw about 10 million square feet of
new development.
ELSEWHERE IN NORTH
AMERICA
Louisville, Ky., which
sits in either the South or
Midwest — depending
on your point of view —
was one of those smaller
metros that did not
experience the real estate
boom after the turn of
the new century, nor the
bust that followed. None
of which prevented the
city from going through
a development dry period
after the onset of the Great
Recession — as the lack of
financing for new projects
was fairly universal across
North America.
Still, the equanimity of
the local commercial
real estate market made
Louisville attractive to
entrepreneurial firms that
understood the region. NTS Development Co. of
Lewisville, Kentucky, struck first, developing a
125,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art, spec office
building in 2010. The building attracted Churchill
Downs as an anchor tenant and by the time it was
completed it was 90 percent leased, and is fully
leased today, reports Tony Fluhr, SIOR, CCIM,
a director with NTS Development, Louisville, Ky.
The company is nearing completion on the second
spec office building, being developed in cooperation
with University of Louisville Foundation, in a 200-
acre, in-fill development. “The 125,000-square-
foot structure will open in the third quarter with
two tenants taking down 15,000 and 20,000
square feet,” says Fluhr. NTS Development is in
conversation with a few other potential tenants.
“Secondly, the Toronto market has come back because
of organic growth from Canadian companies that are
expanding and need more space,” Murray adds.
In the submarket of Burlington, Murray worked
with a client that was looking for 120,000 square
feet with 28-foot clear and ESFR (early suppression,
fast release) sprinklers. The product didn’t exist,
so the client jump-started a 350,000 new industrial
build of which Murray’s client will take the 120,000
square feet.
“Tampa-based BayCare Health System Inc. just moved
into a newly built
facility of 150,000
square feet and has
another build-to-suit
of 125,000 square feet
in Pinellas County,”
reports Codd.
“Bristol-Meyers have
taken down 70,000
square feet to expand
to 100,000 square
feet, and Health Plan
Systems recently
came to the market
and is expected to
add 99,000 more
square feet.”
To which Robert
Dikman, SIOR,
ALC, CCIM, CRB,
chairman and CEO of
the Dikman Company
in Tampa, Fla., adds:
“With inventory
slowly getting filled,
there is demand for
space. We will do two build-to-suits this year. The first
is 18,000 square feet of industrial with seven acres of
outside storage, and the other is a 32,000-square-foot,
special-purpose building with tons of parking.”
As for speculative development, here is where the
two cities diverge, and in a big way. Tampa is getting
its first spec building, 150,000 square feet, under
development by Cabot Properties, whereas Toronto’s
first spec building opened at the beginning of 2013;
it was such a success the market has since exploded.
Since the recession, Canada’s largest privately-held
industrial real estate developer, Orlando Corporation,
has built the city’s first spec building in the Toronto
area with 500,000 square feet of space. It was leased
in full by Amazon. The company now has a number of
DOUG MURRAY,
SIOR
JILL RASMUSSEN,
SIOR, CCIM
TONY FLUHR,
SIOR, CCIM
SCOTT HENSLEY,
SIOR, CCIM
SIORs
Commercial real estate
development has lagged
the economic recovery,
with many cities not seeing
post-recession, speculative
projects until 2012 or 2013.
In many cases, those early
entrepreneurial efforts have
proven wildly successful,
enticing other developers
back into the game.
However, all recoveries
aren’t equal, so the degree
of resurgence varies
dramatically.
