A trio of big dollar industrial deals last year helped boost the sector in Southwest Florida to new highs — though one industry analyst says the overall industrial market is a bit softer than previous years.
The three deals include two office parks and a single occupancy property with Cheetos as a tenant.
The three deals, all in Lee County, totaled $280 million in sales.
With the help, industrial made up 41% of the commercial real estate market for Southwest Florida last year, with $576 million in sales according to Matt Simmons.
Simmons, managing partner of Maxwell, Hendry & Simmons, one of the largest appraisals and consulting firms in Southwest Florida, broke down the data at the annual Market Trends conference in Fort Myers March 20.
The industrial sector’s share of the market was up from last year’s 29%.
Retail came in with a 42% of sales, down from 53% last year, and office came in with a 17% share, about the same as last year’s 18%.
Simmons said “it looks as if industrial continued to increase its share of sales, and it did, technically speaking, but that’s a little bit deceiving.”
The reason for that is that the three big sales —the Tri-County 75 industrial park for $155 million; the CenterLinks Business Park for $92.5 million; and a Cheetos distribution center for $33 million — made up just shy of 50% of the total industrial sales in the market.
Given that, “the industrial market was definitely softer from a sales volume standpoint in 2024,” Simmons said.
But the news isn’t all bad for the sector. The two business parks were bought by two out-of-state institutional investors who, Simmons said, both “operate around the world, but were making their first big splash in Southwest Florida. And both buyers said that these acquisitions were really just the beginning for them in Southwest Florida.”
As for the overall commercial real estate market in the region, Simmons said there are some troubles, highlighted by a dip in commercial sales volume across the retail and office sectors.
But there are positive signals as well.
Plus, he said the region is coming off of a 10-year bull market that was losing steam in 2020, before pandemic money floated into the region after COVID and then insurance and grant money poured in after Hurricane Ian in 2022.
“So, ultimately, what is the next big thing?” Simmons said.
“Like I said, it’s reality. We’re all looking toward what’s next, what will come. It’s right in front of us. There’s good and there’s bad, and that’s normal. It doesn’t feel normal because we were operating for more than 10 years in a market cycle that was being induced by artificial influences.
“We’re performing quite well as a market right now, but you have to know what matters, which market metrics apply, and have a strategy.”
Here is some of the data presented by Simmons at the Market Trends event. It provides a snapshot of the Southwest Florida commercial real estate market.
Top industrial, office and retail sales by countyQuarter to date, though some sales happened in 2024. |
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| Lee | Collier | Charlotte | ||
| Industrial Sales | Property | Tri-County 75 | Naples Industrial Estates | Kazwell Light Industrial Mall |
| Square Feet | 816,866 | 83,500 | 12,672 | |
| Sale Price | $155.1M | $17M | $1.26M | |
| Office Sales | Property | Hodges University campus | Truist building | Florida Cancer Specialist & Research Institute |
| Square Feet | 118,425 | 68,003 | 12,404 | |
| Sale Price | $28.6M | $21.25M | $4.89M | |
| Retail Sales | Property | Cypress Trace | Carillon Place | AFC Urgent Care and Kahwa Coffee |
| Square Feet | 288,313 | 250,234 | 5,000 | |
| Sale Price | $40.35M | $54.7M | $4M | |
Existing inventoryQuarter to date. The inventory numbers refer to the amount of building square footage that exists for that product in the specified geography. |
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| Lee | Collier | Charlotte | ||
| Industrial | Buildings | 2,482 | 1,073 | 500 |
| Rentable Square Feet | 42,118,556 | 14,495,422 | 5,876,719 | |
| Vacancy | 5.7% | 2.6% | 8.8% | |
| Office | Buildings | 2,046 | 749 | 581 |
| Rentable Square Feet | 22,102,509 | 10,575,134 | 4,149,169 | |
| Vacancy | 4.8% | 4.8% | 3.5% | |
| Retail | Buildings | 3,656 | 1,740 | 980 |
| Rentable Square Feet | 49,912,337 | 24,408,299 | 11,198,513 | |
| Vacancy | 2.6% | 4% | 2.4% | |
2024 commercial sales volume by county |
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| Industrial | Office | Retail | Total | |
| Lee | $460 million | $162 million | $379 million | $1 billion |
| Collier | $110 million | $62.3 million | $196 million | $368.3 million |
| Charlotte | $6 million | $16.3 million | $20.6 million | $42.9 million |
SWFL commercial sales volume |
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| Year | Industrial | Office | Retail |
| 2024 | $576 million | $241 million | $596 million |
| 2023 | $379 million | $236 million | $700 million |
| 2022 | $431 million | $377 million | $1 billion |
| 2021 | $401 million | $548 million | $1.1 billion |
| 2020 | $277 million | $251 million | $634 million |