Orlando Makes a Massive Rebound

ORLANDO—Tourism and construction are two mainstays of the Orlando market. Both of them took a hard hit in the recession.

“We came to a virtual standstill,” Melissa Marcolini-Quinn, who runs NorthMarq's Central Florida operations as SVP and senior director, tells GlobeSt.com. “From a financing standpoint, we were almost considered the pariah of the nation. I would call up a lender, and if you said the deal was anywhere in Florida, they didn't want to talk to you.”

Marcolini-Quinn calls it sad story because even though some Orlando submarkets—and some submarkets—were performing strong nobody wanted to hear about the rays of sunshine. The storm is over though. The unemployment rate in Orlando is not only below the Florida average—it's below the national average.

And it's not all about tourism's recovery in Orlando. Construction is also on the rebound.

“Our single-family homes are coming back, as well as our commercial construction; you see activity all over the place,” says Marcolini-Quinn. That she says, “tells you how strong everything is getting.” She's also bullish on multifamily and doesn't see any bubble forming.

Meanwhile, retail is also rebounding. Bobby Palta, a vice president with CBRE, tells GlobeSt.com retail is a tenant's market in some submarkets and a landlord's market in others.

“The market conditions depend on the area location,” Palta says. “We have some very high-demand submarkets and some that are less so. Pricing is back to record levels. I've heard quotes on class A product rents at $55 to $65 per square foot, which is unheard of. The flip side is that it's a tenant's market for class C product.”

Paul Bubny contributed to this report.