MIAMI—Bob Peterson, chairman and CEO of Carter in Atlanta, has his ear to the ground—and his boots on the ground—in the Southeast's commercial real estate market. Carter focuses its efforts on raising funds through private and institutional equity and bank financing.
All told, the firm has invested $875 million in the last 10 years. What better person to ask about the key trends in the Southeast's commercial real estate market?
First off, Peterson tells GlobeSt.com, the Southeast is growing from a population perspective. That's good news but the even better news is that, according to his estimates, the Southeast will continue to grow in the years ahead.
“That creates opportunities for the real estate industry,” Peterson says. “When you've got solid growth in the population, you're going to have solid growth in construction business.”
That's the overarching trend, but Petersen doesn't leave us there. He gets granular with demographics.
“The obvious ongoing trend is the continuing movement of Millennials to the urban core,” Petersen says. “They want to live in a place where they don't spend half their life in a car. Now as Millennials age a little bit and start having children, the desires may change.” He's not he only one who's seeing this.
In other words, they may opt for single-family homes in the suburbs. But that's likely at least a few years away.
“Many folks in the South have not really grasped the long-term benefits an urban life completely,” Petersen says. “There are still a lot of people that want their yard and space, so that's going to factor in at some point.”
There's a lot of talk about affordable housing in the Southeast and particularly in Miami. Peterson also has some thoughts on that topic.
“There's also no question that the affordability of housing is a real barrier for folks,” Petersen says. “That's why the multifamily apartment market has seen tremendous growth and a tremendous amount of construction. We're seeing rising rents and very strong occupancy rates.”
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