If there has been a consistent bright spot in Florida’s real estate market, it is the industrial sector — warehouse-type space that includes everything from grocery distribution facilities to storage to manufacturing plants. As of the second quarter, vacancy statewide was only about 10%. “That market is extremely hot and getting hotter,” says Ed Mitchell, of Duke Realty, which purchased 51 south Florida industrial buildings with close to 5 million square feet in late 2010 and early 2011. Mitchell says institutional investors and international players are shopping for Florida’s industrial developments and are willing to pay healthy prices.

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Florida’s consumer confidence index rose this month to 64, up three points from a revised mark of 61 in August, which was only two points higher than the record low of 59 set in June 2008, according to a new University of Florida survey.

“The increase in confidence this month was mostly a rebound from very low levels in August,” said Chris McCarty, director of UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research and Survey Research Center, which conducted the survey.

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Florida’s leading indicator — a measurement of economic activity in the state compiled by Durham, N.H.-based e-forecasting.com — rose in July by 0.1 percent after decreasing by 0.1 percent in June.

The July data is the most recent available.

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DCT Industrial Trust Inc. said Tuesday it has acquired a three-building portfolio in Orlando, Fla., for $17 million.

The three bulk-distribution facilities are in the southwest Orlando area, in a regional distribution hub for many retailers and suppliers, the Denver industrial real estate company (NYSE: DCT) said.

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An Oviedo firm plans to build a new 80,000-square-foot, $5 million-plus warehouse/distribution center in unincorporated Seminole County and create 20 more jobs.

Nutrex Research Inc., which has operated from a 27,000-square-foot facility in Oviedo since 2006, will nearly triple its space on a 5-acre site in the South Park Business Center. Nutrex’s related TSO Enterprises LLC bought the site in June for $789,791 from Oviedo-based developer M&O LP.

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With more than two months left in its fiscal year, the U.S. Small Business Administration has approved more than $16.4 billion in loans through its flagship 7(a) lending program.

But this record pace has its downside: The 7(a) program is authorized to do only $17.5 billion in loans this fiscal year. Once that cap is reached, the SBA can’t approve any more 7(a) loans until a new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

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The nation’s bankers are sounding more optimistic about the commercial real estate markets than at any time since the onslaught of the Great Recession in 2007. In their second quarter earnings conference calls over the past week, several spoke of plans to re-enter the CRE market or actually reported CRE loan growth already.

Bankers also reported increased demand from CRE borrowers and increasing competition for new business – particularly multifamily. The level of interest in CRE lending was similar from both big banks and community banks.

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In a sign that the Central Florida industrial market is improving, in the past 60 days Matt Sullivan, SIOR, CCIM, and Wilson McDowell, CCIM, of Colliers International Central Florida have closed 23 industrial deals totaling just over 630,000sf of transactions.

Several notable transactions include leases for Orange County, Super Color and Peninsula Food Service, and investment sales of properties on North Goldenrod Road and University Boulevard.

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Orlando’s status as a biotech cluster may get a dose of inhaled steroids.

Orlando-based Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corp., which makes generic respiratory drugs, is planning a $100 million expansion with 100 new, high-wage jobs in either Orlando or Murray, Ky.

“We’re very hopeful that Orlando is where the facility will end up, but we’d be remiss not to consider our options,” said Nephron CEO Lou Kennedy.

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If anything has been predictable about the 2011 commercial real estate market recovery, it’s that it has been unpredictable. For a year that began with much promise following the increased leasing activity, thawing capital flow and widening investor interest that characterized the second half of last year, the momentum in the market seems to have flattened out.

This has been more baffling than discouraging to real estate professionals across the country. Key indicators across a wide number of local markets still hold promise for more vigorous activity. However, according to a survey of readers conducted by CoStar News, landlords, lenders, investors and tenants just aren’t making the connections in the marketplace needed to jump start a sustained recovery.

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When Orlando business broker George Rosen seeks to finance the sale of a company, his most likely source is a 7(a) loan backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Banks and most other financial institutions won’t touch many of his deals because they almost always involve financing of goodwill — a company’s reputation or position in the marketplace that has value but is not a tangible asset, said Rosen, managing director of Orlando-based Contango Investments Inc.

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Wells Fargo’s Economic Outlook on Florida and varios cities throughout the State of Florida.

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Orlando hotels filled about eight of every 10 rooms in March, a rare feat that hasn’t happened in three years.

Properties in the Orlando area logged an average occupancy rate of 80.6 percent — the first time the local market has topped 80 percent since March 2008. And last month’s occupancy was up 9.9 percent compared with the same month a year ago, according to data released Wednesday by Smith Travel Research.

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Housing and commercial real estate are seemingly going in opposite directions nationally with housing prices and sales totals continuing to fall and CRE markets taking steps toward recovery. However, the fear of a double-dip housing recession is tangible – if not real – and continues to tug naggingly on the CRE industry.

When the recession began in 2007, the commercial real estate markets declines lagged but eventually paralleled the declines of the hardest-hit residential markets. If housing goes into a double-dip recession, the question many are wondering if commercial real estate is likely to follow? That was the question we put to a variety of CRE professionals and analysts.

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Orange County leaders agreed in principle Tuesday to cut growth impact fees by 25 percent because of a drop in construction costs during the recession.

Developers wanted deep cuts in the fees the government charges to offset costs that new businesses and homes have on municipal services. The local homebuilders’ lobbying group argued it was “the chief obstacle to economic recovery.”

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Don Mears spent two years and almost $1.5 million just getting approvals from the city of Edgewater and the state to do a large-scale development called Restoration.

And he almost had all of that pulled out from under him because of opposition from the former secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs.

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If conditions in commercial real estate have indeed hit bottom, then an increased amount of distressed assets could hit the market this year — and values could also begin to tick up. That is the general consensus of industry professionals that CoStar Group interviewed for their outlooks on distressed investing in 2011.

Contributing to this expectation is a change seen in the dynamic among lenders. Up until very recently, banks have been reluctant to foreclose on distressed loans because they would be forced to take huge write downs – i.e. losses on those assets. So a policy regarding under-performing loans on commercial real estate that has come to be called “extend and pretend” has become prevalent in banking for the last three years.

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Mark Vitner, Senior Economist with Wells Fargo takes a look at Florida’s Economy for 2011.

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