DeSoto County commercial real estate a hot commodity
Photo: From left, Eric Fuhrman of Crye-Leike Commercial, with Olive Branch Rotarians Tracy Kirkley and Andy Pressman at the club’s Tuesday, July 11 meeting. (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)
Eric Fuhrman of Crye-Leike Commercial Real Estate sees a strong market that will continue to be strong in the DeSoto County area for the foreseeable future.
Fuhrman is the managing broker and President of Crye-Leike Commercial, the Memphis Metro Area commercial division of Crye-Leike.
“We believe that demand will remain high for all property types in the scale we talked about through 2023,” Fuhrman said. “We’re forecasting a stable and strong commercial real estate market well into 2024, we don’t see any kind of a let up anytime soon.”
That was the summary of his presentation to the Rotary Club of Olive Branch meeting Tuesday noon, July 11 at the Olive Branch Country Club, where Fuhrman reviewed the commercial market situation in the area.
Industrial is the hottest area of the commercial real estate realm at this time in the Mid-South, Fuhrman said, with commercial development land currently on the other end of the spectrum. High construction costs are among the reasons for commercial development land not being as much in demand.
“It’s going to sell in a week and above,” Fuhrman said about industrial real estate availability.
According to Fuhrman, industrial property is currently 94 percent occupied, multi-family avails are 88 percent occupied and retail is at 97 percent occupied. Office space is 89 percent occupied, according to Fuhrman.
Another part of his presentation Tuesday involved the growing use of AI, or artificial intelligence, in the commercial real estate industry. Fuhrman looked at how AI is used by professionals in the field, from streamlining processes to the decision-making process.
“Technology is impacting commercial real estate in a big way,” Fuhrman said.
Three of the larger projects underway in Olive Branch are the Old Town Parish, Cascades, and the Bridges at Camp Creek developments. The Cascades, a large and highly touted development that attracted Gov. Tate Reeves to attend its groundbreaking event, is estimated at $300 million. They are examples of the mixed-use concept in developments.
“The mixed-use concept is a single development that has a lot of different things going on,” Fuhrman said. “This mixed-use development is everywhere.“
Fuhrman ended his presentation by suggesting that business owners who also own the real estate the business is located consider a sale-leaseback option as a strong investment option.
“The owner of a business and property offers their property for sale and remains as a tenant,” Fuhrman explained. “Many times when that occurs, the real estate can sell near double what it would have sold if the property was vacant.”
