Q&A | Steve Cunningham

STEVE CUNNINGHAM
Qualifying Broker, LandQwest Commercial
Fort Myers and Tampa

As the qualifying broker for LandQwest Commercial, Steve Cunningham overseas the brokerage's entire operation, from strategic planning to operational analysis. He also heads the company's operational structure. A holder of MAI and CCIM real estate designations, Cunningham has been active in Southwest and Central Florida's sales, leasing and consulting markets since 1976. He spoke to the Business Observer this month about the commercial real estate market Lee and Collier counties.

Markets nationwide are being described as “frothy” and “foamy” -- especially for asset classes such as multifamily, hospitality and senior housing. What's your sense of the market there?
In general, what we're seeing in multifamily and in hotels is that they're benefitting from today's robust economy. In terms of both occupancy and average daily rates, hotels have rebounded significantly, and as a result investors are buying and, in some cases, finding that supply is not available to them. Overall the demand curve is greater than the supply in hotels, multifamily projects and senior housing. On multifamily projects, we're seeing multiple offers for properties at attractive cap rates. So the market there is moving with high velocity. And in senior housing, we get calls from all over the country asking about that asset class, because of our demographics and aging population in Florida.