Apple Leasing More Space in Miami, Following Amazon and MSFT

[elchevere]

Taking 45,000 square ft lease at The Plaza in Coral Gables:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...3geqfHB3sKk8mE

[MiamiLIFE]

Originally Posted by elchevere

Taking 45,000 square ft lease at The Plaza in Coral Gables:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...3geqfHB3sKk8mE

Love it! Nice win for the Gables.

[SanyBelle]

Is the Plaza in Coral Gables currently under construction? I can see building construction looking northeast towards CG from Downtown Dadeland near the BrandSmart on 88th Street.

[CXT2000]

Great news for Coral Gables, Brickell was probably too expensive for them, but it's always good to see other areas gaining large leases.

[CXT2000]

Something interesting about this and it 100% ties into office leasings. The two cities leading in return to offices as of March, 2024 are Miami and NYC.

Miami is at 85% vs pre-pandemic levels, NYC hit 80%. So Miami is doing very well, the death of NYC has been overblown (as always). S.F is doing the worst but they're finally gaining traction.

[gixxer1000]

Originally Posted by CXT2000

Something interesting about this and it 100% ties into office leasings. The two cities leading in return to offices as of March, 2024 are Miami and NYC.

Miami is at 85% vs pre-pandemic levels, NYC hit 80%. So Miami is doing very well, the death of NYC has been overblown (as always). S.F is doing the worst but they're finally gaining traction.

To be fair Miami and NYC are leading the nation in a survey of foot traffic relative to pre-pandemic levels. They survey about 1,000 buildings and traffic foot traffic at those buildings over time.

In terms of actual vacancy Miami is leading the pack with lowest vacancy that is getting lower, but NY has a higher vacancy that is getting higher. They currently are at a record high for emptyness.

https://nypost.com/2024/04/02/real-e...for-emptiness/

While the peak era of remote work may feel long ago in the past, the number of vacant offices in Manhattan just hit a new record.

The borough’s office availability rate -– or, how much of that market is currently unfilled — hit 18.1% in the first quarter of 2024......Still, the rate has gone up even in the past 12 months, when it was 17.1%, and even last quarter, when it was 17.9%.

The interview with Michael Cohen on NY's market is interesting.

https://commercialobserver.com/2024/...filling-space/

I don’t really see us leasing our way back to 10 percent, or anything near 10 percent.

They really need to figure out how to convert a decent portion of office to a more desireable use. I've worked on a office to resi conversion and the problem is that most office buildings don't layout well to resi units as floorplates are too deep.

But I think their issue is more than office. The migrant issue has forced them to reduce budgets for police, schools, sanitation, etc. Empty office means lower property values which futher reduces revenue. The lower services leads to more people leaving. For example 80% of residents can't afford child care and now because of lower funding more child care centers will have to close. More people again leads to less revenue.

They are literally replacing people who pay into the system, with people who are dependent on the system. And they have no political will to change anything. I'm not saying they're doomed but it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

But as usual their loss is another gain which in this case is Texas and Florida.

[CXT2000]

^ vacancy is going back up in Brickell/downtown. Wynwood still has a 30-35% vacancy, depending on broker data,but MDC overall is stable. It is getting very expensive to lease here, so I'm expecting further slowdowns.

For NYC, vacancy is high, but there's so many major office projects U/C and proposed, class A/AAA is where all the action is. Conversion is so expensive, but they desperately need to convert older Class C/B office towers. I'm hoping for the best in NYC, but that city is resilient and has faced struggle before, they're the most important city in the world.

[wanderer34]

This move from Apple makes a lot of sense, considering that Miami, being in the US, is a much more secure location to operate for Latin American markets rather than opening a South American location in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, or Venezuela, considering what those countries are going through with their economies, their finances, and their politics. The US economy will insulate this location from further erosion if you were to locate it somewhere in Latin America.