TAMPA, FL—Activity in Tampa’s retail investment market is reaching a sustainable pace as lenders are now willing to fund loans for most product types and buyers are becoming more tolerant of risk. So says the most recent RetailResearch report from Marcus & Millichap.

The firm reports that the single-tenant arena is moving away from its bifurcated status over the past two years, when mostly properties with corporate leases and vacant owner-user assets changed hands. As cap rates compress into the 6% range for drugstores, M&M predicts, buyer will acquire franchise-occupied properties to met return objectives. Initial yields will start in the low-8% range.

M&M also predicts that multi-tenant investors will enjoy greater access to acquisition financing this year, which will create more buying opportunities. Buyers are still favoring class A assets, the firm reports, which trade at cap rates in the high-7% to low-8% range, with lesser-quality properties starting in the mid-9% area.

“Investors are seeking necessity-based retail these days,” HFF senior managing director Brad Peterson tells GlobeSt.com. “Grocery-anchored centers are clearly the highest in demand in the retail market.”

Peterson reports seeing even greater interest and more aggressive pricing on grocery-anchored centers in Florida in the past 60 to 90 days. That, he says, has been driven by a flight to quality, treasuries dropping, and more attractive debt markets on the pricing side.

“I think broadly investors believe prospects in Florida are bright for the long-term,” Peterson says. “I think short-term we have to work through some things. Folks want to be in high-quality grocery-anchored locations long-term because they feel that’s where there are the most prospects for growth.”