FORT LAUDERDALE, FL—David Druey, Florida Regional President of Centennial Bank, is bullish on Florida as far as his crystal ball can see. He sees the state's primary metro areas remaining hot at least through the end of 2020. In an exclusive interview with GlobeSt.com, Druey offers his projects for the remainder of the year. Centennial's Florida operations are based in Fort Lauderdale and its branches stretch from Orlando to Key West.

"Orlando continues with suburban sprawl with lifestyle retail centers and supporting areas where light rail has popped up," Druey says. Developments like Celebration, which one of our customers is doing, continues to grow and meet the demand from people moving into the area.

Looking down the state's west coast, Druey observes that Naples is "completely on fire," with an influx of people moving south from the Midwest. Tampa continues to be strong in multi-family.

Miami remains hot, especially in terms of apartment complexes. The same holds true for Broward County.

"In West Palm, we are seeing one to four family development still active," he says. "We're still seeing people move from New York and New Jersey, and we're also seeing some movement north from Miami and Broward to get out of Miami's traffic flow."

Miami's light rail system is also helping spur growth. Druey says the ability to move around the city without having a car is ingrained in Miami.

"The overall economy is so strong. Every sector we see in South Florida is doing extremely well."

Druey says Florida's lack of an income tax is a tremendous draw.

"Over the last two years, it has become a factor in every business that I talked to. It's within the top three or top five reasons they chose to move to Florida."

Druey notes that the Orlando market is different because it is more spread out and the price point is not as high as in extreme South Florida. He says it's a little trickier there because of the sprawl. It's a more nuanced location, he says. "You have to make sure you have the right deal and the right location," Druey says. "We have seen this happen before. Every three to five miles there is another lifestyle retail center, another hub. The key there is you have to make sure you are in a sustainable area close to schools and the other lifestyle attractions. That's the kind of thing you have seen with Celebration. You have to determine the long-term viability of the location."

The Lake Nona area on the east side of Orlando, with its medical research facilities, will continue to be a big draw.

Druey believes the remainder of 2020 will be pretty constant and not much different than in 2019.

"I see continued movements from other states with income taxes. I also see continued growth in warehouse space and in one to four family housing. There is nothing on the horizon that is making me nervous and I don't see anything that is making developers nervous. Everyone believes interest rates will remain low."

Instant Insights /

Centennial Bank's David Druey on Florida's Growth Story

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