Tampa Bay Market Reports

ST. PETERSBURG - During the second quarter of 2010, the Tampa Bay metropolitan statistical area's economy continued to improve from the extreme downturn that has plagued the area for more than two years. Employment increased by 1,400 new jobs from March 2010 through May 2010. Federal government employment increased by 5,900 over the last three months, though this is primarily due to the temporary workers hired for the 2010 U.S. Census.

LAKELAND - Signs of an economic recovery began to emerge in the Lakeland-Winter Haven metropolitan statistical area during the first half of 2010. The unemployment rate decreased seven-tenths of a percentage point to 12% from year-end 2009 through May 2010 and employment increased by a net of 100 new jobs.

The pace of employment reductions in the Tampa metro area will ease drastically this year, slowly stabilizing the local apartment market. Recent job losses in specific sectors, however, will sustain performance differences among the property classes.

Since the start of the recession, Class A vacancy has increased 220 basis points, compared with 420 basis points for all properties. The performance of top-tier assets reflects the less severe job cuts that have occurred in predominantly white-collar employment sectors such as professional and business services and financial activities.

We close out our first quarter of 2010 with everyone looking for signs of recession recovery. The Tampa Bay industrial market continues to show signs of weakness, but these weaknesses are trending at a slower pace.

Overall vacancy hit the double digits, standing at 10.1%, but this represents only an increase of 30 basis points from last quarter. We continue to see sublease space brought onto the market. Currently there is almost 1 msf of sublease space on the market or 6.7% of the overall vacancy. When sublease space is removed, the Tampa Bay industrial direct vacancy rate stands at 9.4%.