'Doral commercial realty spreading its wings'

 

Doral’s commercial real estate market continues to evolve beyond its industrial roots, with retail rents climbing, office rents edging higher, and developers potentially pursuing new mixed-use and residential projects, according to Matthew Rotolante, president of Lee & Associates South Florida.

“It’s no longer just a commercial sector with industrial warehouses,” Mr. Rotolante said. “There’s parks, there’s residential, you know, towers, golf communities, a lot of great schools, so it’s definitely come a long way.”

“I would say we do have higher vacancies in industrial than there were four years ago,” he later added. “You know, there were a lot of new buildings that were built and delivered.”

Mr. Rotolante said inflation, tariffs and higher fuel costs have created challenges for warehouse operators and logistics companies, particularly those heavily dependent on transportation. However, he added that the market has remained stable.

“I don’t think we’re seeing any businesses going out of business,” Mr. Rotolante said. “It’s just, maybe people are rightsizing a little bit more, and we have seen, in the near recent past, a little more of an uptick in activity on the leasing front as well.”

Mr. Rotolante said investment funds are purchasing industrial outdoor storage, or IOS, properties – a growing industrial real estate subclass that includes truck terminals, equipment yards and other outdoor storage sites. He said many of the properties being acquired in Doral were previously used as trucking sites.

“You also have a lot of groups out there that are private equity groups that have raised funds to purchase some of the smaller Class B and C properties,” he said, “so, you know, industrially speaking, it’s been a very active market.”

While industrial remains one of Doral’s defining commercial sectors, Mr. Rotolante said retail properties have seen significant pricing growth. He said retail storefront rents in some shopping centers have risen above $60 per square foot, levels the market had not previously seen.

In addition, retail demand has been supported by residential growth, as retailers follow new rooftops and residential activity.

“Retail-wise, the retail tends to chase the rooftops and the residential activity, and that’s been pretty solid,” Mr. Rotolante said. “Retail vacancies are pretty low, and we’ve also seen some of the larger health outfits move into the area as well.”

Although office activity has not matched the gains seen in industrial and retail, he said the sector has shown improvement as more corporations push for employees to return to the office.

“Office is still trying to find itself after covid, but we do see overall a push by corporations to have a return to the office, so we have seen rental rates in the office sector as well creep up, maybe not as significantly as we’ve seen movement in the industrial rates and the retail rates, but certainly office has been performing well as well,” Mr. Rotolante said.

He said some warehouses with frontage along major roads are being redeveloped into retail centers, while changes at the state level, including the Live Local Act, have led some developers to explore converting commercial sites into larger multifamily residential projects. Development may also continue expanding west of the Turnpike as available land becomes scarcer elsewhere.

The city’s residential growth, Mr. Rotolante said, has helped support restaurants, retail and entertainment, allowing more residents to shop, dine and spend time locally.

“I think Doral has found itself to be a very viable place to live, work and play,” he said. “You know, a lot of people are choosing it as a location to do all the above, and we’re just going to see a continuation of that.”

Mr. Rotolante said Doral’s large commercial tax base, schools and expanding residential development have helped make the city an attractive location for businesses and investment.

“Overall, we’ve seen a lot of activity,” Mr. Rotolante said, “a lot of great businesses are operating out of Doral, and we don’t see that slowing down anytime soon.”

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About Lee & Associates South Florida

Lee & Associates South Florida is a fully vertical commercial real estate brokerage firm focused on industrial, office, retail, multifamily, investment and land sectors. Our dedicated team of professionals is led by Matthew Rotolante, CCIM, SIOR a 4th generation South Florida native in a family that has owned and operated commercial property here since 1928. Lee & Associates is the largest agent owned brokerage in the nation with Senior Agent’s ability to earn profit share resulting in the highest splits while still receiving full resources, support and leads from our national network. Our collaborative and cheerful culture allows for open communications throughout the company, fostering the sharing of information and best practices to better enable client decision making.  The Lee & Associates’ robust national network that sold and leased over $128 Billion in the last 5 years offers clients a cross-market platform of expertise and deal opportunities across all asset specialties and representation roles. For the latest news from Lee & Associates South Florida, visit leesouthflorida.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, our company local news.

About Lee & Associates

Lee & Associates is a commercial real estate brokerage sales, leasing and management firm. Established in 1979, Lee & Associates has grown its service platform to include over 75 offices in the United States and Canada. Lee & Associates is the largest agent owned commercial real estate brokerage where agents get the greatest return for their efforts and hence are more committed and better enabled to provide superior results for their customers.  For the latest news from Lee & Associates, visit lee-associates.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Link, our company blog.