Four months ago, Ky Nguyen was paying about $6,000 a month in rent for his small, 1,600 square-foot dental office, part of a mostly vacant strip mall in Manteca, Calif.

In July, he bought the entire 25,000 square-foot mall for $1.9 million, one-fifth of what the prior owner paid, purchasing it from a loan servicer that had foreclosed on the property. Now, with an affordable mortgage and some rental revenue, his debt service comes to about $2,000 a month less than he used to pay in rent for his office.

“We jumped on the opportunity,” said Mr. Nguyen, a 36-year-old …

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Central Florida’s high unemployment rate shows no signs of easing up anytime soon.

Roughly 3,619 Central Florida workers at large companies were told during the first nine months of 2011 that they would be laid off. That’s is up 93.5 percent, or nearly double the 1,870 employees notified of layoffs during the same period last year.

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TALLAHASSEE — Florida has given tax breaks and other cash incentives to some of the world’s biggest companies in return for creating jobs.

But even Walmart, Publix, Kraft Foods and other corporate giants have had trouble meeting job goals.

New data show that Florida has signed contracts worth $1.7 billion since 1995 in return for promises of 225,000 new jobs.

But only about one-third of those jobs have been filled while the state has paid out 43 percent of the contracts.

That averages out to $10,237 per job.

“Hopefully we’ll learn some important lessons,” said Rep. Mike Horner, a Kissimmee Republican whose budget committee controls economic development money.

Information on the performance of Florida’s incentive programs comes as Gov. Rick Scott prepares his budget request for new tax incentives next year. At least $125 million will be available in a fund lawmakers created for incentives.

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Florida’s unemployment rate fell to 10.6 percent in September after holding steady at 10.7 percent for three months, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity reported Friday. Gov. Rick Scott held an impromptu media teleconference to release the numbers this morning from Brazil, where he had just arrived on a trade mission.

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Orlando’s hotel industry had an unusually busy September, with hotels in the tourist corridor boosting their occupancy significantly compared with a year ago.

Hotels in the Orlando area filled 56.4 percent of their rooms during the month, compared with 50.3 percent in September 2010. And the average daily room rate rose 5.7 percent to $81.85, according to Smith Travel Research, which tracks hotels in markets nationwide.

Still, it’s hard to read a lot into the results for September, generally a month when tourism is slow and group business is hit or miss.

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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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Overall activity across the Central Florida industrial market remained fairly upbeat during the third
quarter of 2011. Modest growth was experienced throughout the majority of the submarkets as
tenants continued to capitalize on discounted rents and favorable concessions. New deals remained
limited as existing tenants are merely trading spaces in the current market. Flight to quality continues
to be the common interest with class A quality space achieving what was once class B rates.
Investment activity, although showing signs of increased interest, remained slow in terms of
transaction volume and lack of available product. However, a few significant sales did occur
throughout the third quarter. As the fourth quarter begins and the 2011 year soon concludes, expect
market activity to remain consistent with the third quarter results – modest to strong tenant activity
and slow investment acquisitions.

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Real-estate developer Stephen Ross and his partners spent more than a year digging into U.S. banks, including more than 100 with loans to local bakeries, gas stations and amusement parks. They hoped to spend about $1.1 billion buying or investing in lenders.

But the deeper they went, the worse things looked. As a result, Related Cos., the New York firm in which Mr. Ross is chief executive, gave back the money it raised from roughly 150 investors, including hedge-fund manager David Einhorn. The firm did find several investments it was interested in but was outbid.

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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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The Central Florida industrial market has had a very busy year. Activity has increased significantly compared to the same time last year, with many more deals being completed on both the leasing and sales sides.

However, most of the activity is coming from existing companies already in the market. All we need is a couple of new companies to invest in the Central Florida region to get the market back on its feet. Below is the viewpoint from two industrial brokers on the ground in Central Florida. 

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The effects from late summer’s national and international economic challenges have cast a huge shadow over the commercial real estate market recovery. Nothing postpones a leasing, development or investment decision like the uncertainty surrounding the prospect of a national default, volatile stock markets, a slowdown in retail sales, slouching corporate profit growth, and declining bank lending.

These indicators (while still pointing toward growth) have generally grown progressively weaker since late 2010. And while last year they all pointed to improved employment recovery, that expected level of job growth no longer appears to be the case.

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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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The number of American households that fell behind on their mortgages increased slightly in the second quarter from the previous quarter, according to a survey released Monday, an unwelcome sign for the U.S. economy.

After falling for most of the year, the figures offer the latest indication of how the slumping job market threatens to create new problems for housing. Mortgage delinquencies, while still down from their year-earlier levels, have now edged up in two consecutive quarters after hitting a plateau last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

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Hit hard when the real estate bubble popped in 2007, many South Florida-based community banks are still reeling from the aftershocks.

Over the last few years, past-due loans have mounted, funds required to offset loan losses have skyrocketed, and real estate has been repossessed and marked down, leading to a flood of red ink and a drain on capital.

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Marty Busekrus, a senior associate investment properties for CB Richard Ellis | Capital Markets in Boca Raton, FL, got a call this past Monday morning from a potential office building buyer as mania struck the stock markets. The buyer, who has been trying to buy an office building from one of Busekrus’ clients, said his seller better sell quick as the stock markets were tanking.

Busekrus contacted the seller who responded with a different take, saying instead that everyone is shifting to hard assets so he’s thinking about raising the price.

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Friday’s downgrade of the nation’s creditworthiness is unlikely to affect Florida’s finances, but the Wall Street plummet that followed it Monday could have a negative effect on the state’s long-term recovery if the panic lingers, state money experts say.

“The S & P downgrade from my perspective is more noise than anything else,” said Ben Watkins, director of the state’s Division of Bond Finance. “The real underlying concern is whether the U.S. economy is slipping back into recession. That’s what people are concerned about.”

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The University of Central Florida is out with its latest quarterly economic forecast for the state, and you should feel free to pick any two adjectives to describe it: Gloomy, sluggish, disappointing or dreary.

The forecast calls for a steady by agonizingly slow recovery dominated by high unemployment and a soft housing market. UCF economist Sean Snaith says the jobless rate will not fall below 10 percent until next year, and housing starts will remain only a small fraction of what they were during the boom times.

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