Florida's office space market still sour

For many commercial real estate brokers and landlords, the office space market on the Gulf Coast has turned to train wreck status — grisly, but hard not to stare.

Lee County, for example, would need to add 9,540 office and industrial jobs for those segments of the market to stabilize, given the current vacancy rate. That's according to a new study from LandQwest Commercial in Fort Myers. LandQwest Office Division Director Adam Palmer called the figures discovered in the report “staggering.”

The LandQwest study, says Palmer, looked at the last 10 years of square footper employee data in Lee County to reach its findings. It compared that data with the available space. With job creation at a snail's pace, the study clearly resonates in the broker community. Indeed, a room of 100 or so fellow brokers gasped when Palmer mentioned the report during a recent Certified Commercial Investment Member event.