Industrial Warehouse Space Scarce in Pinellas County

There was a brouhaha in Safety Harbor over a very nice piece of land. A developer was denied in his application to build an apartment/office complex on the corner of McMullin-Booth Road and SR 590 in Safety Harbor. The Pinellas County Commission rejected the project because of "...county policy aimed at preserving industrial land to bring more jobs to the area. See Tampa Bay Times.

I have no iron in this fire. I barely know the details. But as a professional commercial real estate broker, I can tell you without question that this county is sorely lacking in industrial real estate space. When I match a client with the right industrial space in Pinellas, I celebrate a victory.

Pineallas most densely populated County in Florida. Landwise it's not that big. A huge portion of real estate is devoted to housing and residential servicing like grocery stores and shopping facilities. This has left little room for industry. 

Now comes a change in the way we do business that everyone can see. More and more stuff is being bought online and not in brick-and-mortar retail stores. And big screen TVs, computers, cell phones, drones, backyard barbeque repair kits and every other imaginable stuff have to be stored somewhere before being delivered. And that somewhere is industrial space.

In addition, as many as vendors as can are getting orders directly shipped from factories, thereby increasing the need for local storage.

All over the country demand for storage is soaring. In Southern California, perhaps the country's largest market, industrial rents are rising at a steady 10+% rate, according to a recent article in Globest.com.

What will this shortage of storage space mean for us in Pinellas? More expensive delivery? Longer delivery times? No one can be sure. However, anyone considering an investment in commercial real estate is well advised to carefully explore modern storage facilities in or around Pinellas County.