Cushman expects Tampa land market to stay strong for years

An executive of real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield predicted a solid market for land in the Tampa metropolitan area for years to come.

“The overall Tampa Bay land cycle has five to six years left, and solid growth for the next three years. Population and job growth are the drivers,” Bruce K. Elhardt, executive director at the Cushman office in Tampa, predicted in a land market overview report on the Tampa area.

He reported “very active” acquisitions of Tampa land for rental apartment development, a six-year-old trend, and notes that single-family home builders are starting to make “more land buys outside the A/B market” as they try to attract more entry-level buyers.

Erhardt also reported “active” sales of Tampa-area retail property including “outparcel subdivisions and unanchored strips in ‘A’ locations.”

Land acquisitions for office development are dominated by corporate users and companies doing build-to-suit projects.

Erhardt says developers are playing a larger role in Tampa-area land acquisitions for industrial development: “New and local developers continue to contract and close land positions in Tampa, Lakeland, Plant City and Manatee/Lakewood Ranch.”

The Cushman executive also reported active sales of agricultural land in the Tampa-area market, where there are “more buyers than sellers.”