Article on Jacksonville Retail Lease Rates…..Stabilization is starting and rates will surely follow…

Jacksonville retail lease rates are stable at mid-year, report finds

Submitted by Kevin Turner on August 25, 2011 - 3:47pm

Market Value

Jacksonville’s retail leasing rates are stable, a regional third-party retail leasing and management firm concluded in a report released today.

Retail lease rates at the midpoint of 2011 were $13.80 per square foot, up five-tenths of a percent from mid 2010, but down eight-tenths from Jan. 1.
Third-party retail leasing and management firm Crossman & Company concluded that the metropolitan area’s retail occupancy bottomed out at the beginning of last year and is now beginning to bounce back this year.

“Rental rates have also been relatively stable the past five quarters,” said Molly Delahunty, primary author of the firm’s mid-year report on the state of retail leasing in Florida.

Rental rates for the entire state average $15.81 a square foot at the year’s mid-point. That represented a 5-percent drop, but is being attributed to the fact that more landlords are adjusting rents to be more closely aligned with market realities.

Jacksonville retail occupancy rates were at 87 percent mid-year, up 1 percent from the end of 2010. Florida occupancy rates have leveled off at just over 89 percent and are down about 6 percent from a 2006 peak, the report indicated.

The metropolitan area has 38.1 million square feet of shopping centers, according to the report.