MIAMI—President Donald Trump traveled to Florida Thursday to see the damage Irma did to the Sunshine State—at least part of it. The death toll is over 30 in the US. Florida officials have already spent about $250 million on preparation and recovery efforts.

GlobeSt.com caught up with Lee Arnold, executive chairman of Colliers International Florida, to get an early assessment from a commercial real estate perspective. He also shares a major lesson from the storm in this exclusive interview.

GlobeSt.com: Several major commercial real estate markets in Florida took a hard hit from Irma. How did these markets fare in terms of damage sustained?

Arnold: Colliers International has 11 offices in the State of Florida. While it is still too early to know the extent of the damage to our many brokerage listings, only about 10% of the 200 buildings in our statewide property management portfolio sustained measurable damage.

Most damage is light, as many of the buildings are institutional and hardened. We have one client in the Miami area that lost a roof, and the Naples-Fort Myers markets have considerable clean-up and power outage issues that will take some time to overcome.

I think we all were surprised by the flooding in the Jacksonville market. Anywhere we have a flooded building, we must take significant precautions to confirm safety before restoring the power. Power remains the big issue in many parts of the state as of today.

GlobeSt.com: How is the commercial real estate industry reacting? What are landlords and property managers doing to get businesses back up and running?

Arnold: Commercial real estate firms with utility service are back open for business. Colliers has offices that are still shut down in Miami and Fort Myers, but many of our staff are making themselves available remotely.

Our property managers made inspections as soon as the storm passed and engaged restoration efforts the same day. Fast action is key to minimizing restoration costs. As one unfortunate example of this, we have a bank building in Naples that we had difficulty gaining access to, and now it has more extensive water damage.

GlobeSt.com: How well prepared was Florida for a major storm? What lessons did we learn from Irma that will help the CRE markets be better prepared for the next one?

Arnold: I have to say the response to this storm was the best I have seen by our firm, the overall CRE industry and the government. You never really get it totally right, but we are now seeing the results of a hardened Florida that is better prepared for major storms than it has been in the past.

Any loss of life is too much, and I am sure we will find reasons for every death and look for solutions. However, with the relatively low loss of life from Irma, we have to give some credit to proper preparation, communication and execution for keeping people safe.

This storm took a turn away from Tampa Bay, but if we took a direct hit as a Category 3, the conversation would be different. We are all very fortunate.

The lesson is that we may be experiencing a period of larger storms, and every part of the state needs to be prepared for the next one. Hats off to the state leadership that urged people to go to shelters and evacuate the areas that took the brunt of this storm.

Instant Insights /

Irma's Aftermath: How Florida's Commercial Real Estate Market is Reacting

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