Market Spotlight: FORT LAUDERDALE
Solid Footing
Despite being South Florida’s second-largest market,
Fort Lauderdale enjoys stability compared to its neighbor
Photo: Elaine Fitzgerald/Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce
Office inventory
in Downtown Fort
Lauderdale, which totals
at least five million square
feet, has maintained
status quo for the past
two years.
From national and global standpoints, Fort Lauderdale is often lumped together with its better-known
neighbor to the south, Miami. Yet when
considering the vast commercial landscape
of South Florida,
the market stands
solidly on its own.
While Broward County’s office inven-
tory measures two-thirds the size of that
for Miami-Dade County, they both appear
to be on equal footing with vacancy mea-
suring just under 18% through the third
quarter. Yet Fort Lauderdale appears
to have a bit more stability in the year
ahead. As Miami continues to figure out
how to absorb two million square feet of
new office construction, the local market
By Carl Cronan
has little more than 130,000 square feet
under way in suburban markets.
“We are very fortunate that we don’t
have an overbuild situation,” says Tom
Kates, president of locally based Stiles
Corp. The regional developer completed
its most recent large office building, 200
Las Olas Circle in Downtown Fort Lauderdale, in 2007.
The lack of new construction helps at
a time when demand for office space has
stagnated amid rising unemployment
and reduced square footage requirements. According to CB Richard Ellis,
local vacancy has increased nearly three
percentage points so far this year, while
sublease inventory has nearly doubled
to 867,000 square feet. Overall leasing
