"Warehouses here rarely sell at a loss," David Dabby, Integra'scommercial market research director, tells GlobeSt.com. He saysbuying into a warehouse property is a dependable investment becauseabout 50% of the valuation is in the land, which is going upsteadily. That compares favorably to office building investments,which usually attribute 80% of the value to the building, whichgenerally begins to physically depreciate immediately. The usualdepreciation schedule for warehouses spans 75 years versus 40 yearsfor office buildings.

Dabby says the value of warehouses held up even during the early1990 recession in Miami-Dade, the industrial center of SouthFlorida. His transaction review shows Miami-Dade received 62.2% ofthe money spent in the latest quarter, while 29.5% went to Browardand 8.3% to Palm Beach.

Inegra's research indicates that from 1995 to 1999, buyersbought 103.7 million sf in South Florida or about 20.7 million sf ayear. The median price has gone from $30.68 per sf to $40.72 persf, averaging about a 5.3% increase per year.