0
0
0

Viewpoints: John Dohm, Real Estate Consultant/Chairman, Infinity Commercial Real Estate/Miami Association of Realtors, Miami

by James McClister

John-Dohm

John Dohm is a real estate consultant with Infinity Commercial Real Estate and is the 2015 board chairman of the Miami Association of Realtors working in Miami. 

Every week, we ask a Miami real estate professional for their thoughts on the top three stories from the week before. This week, we spoke with John Dohm, a real estate consultant with Infinity Commercial Real Estate and the 2015 board chairman of the Miami Association of Realtors. 

Miami Agent (MA): With the announcement of MiamiCentral, the new transportation hub in downtown Miami, what can residence expect in terms of new maneuverability?

John Dohm (JD): It is likely that residents (i.e., those who live at or within walking distance of the station) will develop lifestyles that coincide with the availablity of the transportation links that will be provided. Those would include shopping habits and decisions on workplace and even jobs themselves. I believe that even those who are initially skeptical of “public transit” in South Florida will quickly find themselves attending concerts, sporting events and planning vacations that stem from the simplicity of simply getting on AAF (All Aboard Florida) and heading to Orlando, getting on Metrorail and heading for the airport or the U of M, and, once service begins, making regular quick trips up the Tri-Rail Coastal Link – once the Tri-Rail shifts from the CSX to the FEC tracks. That Tri-Rail Coastal Link is really the key to buy-in by the greater South Florida community, since it will connect the employment centers by day and entertainment districts by night from Miami through north of Palm Beach.

MA: Commercial builders in Miami have shown a recent interest in consolidation, building office space to coincide with public transport and housing. Have you noticed commercial buyers considering this more in their purchases, and do you think it will be an even bigger trend in 2015? Why or why not?

JD: Yes, absolutely. We are already seeing it throughout Downtown Miami. Remember, a lot of our workforce will be the kids of today and the employees of new business that are relocating or expanding into South Florida from other parts of the USA and the world; and who are used to public transit, transportation-oriented development, hubs and clusters of activity. I commented to a friend the other day about seeing an entire bus full of teenagers stop and unload on Ft. Lauderdale beach while another entire group got on. She said, “That’s freedom to them! If they drive or borrow the car their parents are on their butts the whole time about where they are, what they’re doing and when they’ll be back. Not so with the bus, or better yet, the train.” That’s our workforce of tomorrow. Don’t underestimate them.

MA: Development in Miami is booming, as it has been in recent years. Are you at all worried about the city running into a lack of undeveloped land, and if so, what is the next step in terms of further development?

JD: We are already short of land. Depending on what type of development you have in mind, we may be out of undeveloped land. On the other hand, redevelopment is needed just as badly, and is probably the only way to improve a lot of areas that, by all rights, should be far more desirable than they are. When it comes to vertical development, we haven’t really even started.

MA: As a commercial real estate professionals, what mediums do you find most effective in your marketing?

JD: For most people in the commercial real estate business it is still just getting out and about. Although,z it is now necessary to combine that with making questions immediately answerable through the internet. Social media is not very effective for me in commercial real estate. I can see how it would be different in residential property, especially condos and quasi-commoditized residential development (i.e., apartments, pre-construction condos, etc). Also for retail, where the tenants really define the project, so it is important to communicate directly or indirectly with their customers and know what they think and how the experience the mall or facility.

When it comes to industrial the location, pricing and building features are the determining factors. Same with office space, although there the mass transit is playing a more important part. Nonetheless, I rarely encounter a business looking equally at office space on Brickell, Ft. Lauderdale, Doral and Blue Lagoon, or at warehouse space in Hialeah, Doral, Beacon Lakes, Medley, Davie and Pompano. When it comes to commercial it really is a matter of getting your property out there, especially to the top brokers. They will bring the buyers and tenants.

Read More Related to This Post

Join the conversation

New Subscribe

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.