fbpx

The impact of Cuba opening up

  By Darcie Lunsford

Cuba has long been thought of as that golden chalice of opportunity just waiting to runneth over into South Florida.

First, in post-thaw Cuba, massive amounts of building materials will need to be gathered and distributed to rebuild its crumbling infrastructure. That is likely to be followed by a building boom to accommodate U.S. business travelers and tourists.

Then, as the construction and travel dollars flow in, trickle-down economics tells us that all types of modern-day consumer goods will soon be in demand by Cubans.

Professional service providers and big businesses looking to make inroads into this emerging market are also likely to establish corporate beachheads in Miami or the western suburbs of Miami-Dade or Broward counties.

But more than 16 months after the diplomatic defrost with Cuba, South Florida’s commercial real estate market hasn’t seen so much as a flutter of activity in anticipation of Cuba’s opening.

“I think cautious is a great word for how people in Miami are approaching Cuba now,” says Rene Vivo, a veteran industrial real estate broker, who plans to visit the island to assess opportunities.

Cuba presents an opportunity on many levels for South Florida real estate developers, including driving additional demand for office and warehouse space in South Florida, Vivo says. But the market isn’t large enough to spur new development, especially since the region has built millions of square feet of industrial space in advance of the July opening of the expanded Panama Canal.

Veteran South Florida developer Eric Swanson, a partner with Treadwell Franklin Infrastructure Capital, agrees. “It is a relatively small place with a small amount of production,” he says. “It will certainly have a positive impact, but I don’t see it being a significant increase. I would be hard-pressed to say there would be a building done just because of it.”

Despite the embargo, the United States is already the fourth-largest exporter of goods to Cuba. The limited list of approved exports range from agricultural and health care products to construction materials for private companies.

Port Everglades was the second-largest U.S. port of export to Cuba, shipping out $43.4 million in goods in 2014, most of it frozen chicken, according to a recent JLL white paper on the opening of Cuba. According to JLL, trade exports to Cuba through Port Everglades currently generate demand for 560,000 square feet of industrial space.

The future upside of Cuba is simple math: more exports – and eventually imports – means more demand for South Florida warehouse and distribution facilities.    

“All those supplies are going to flow through South Florida,” says George Pino, president of State Street Realty, a Doral-based commercial real estate brokerage specializing in leasing many of the institutional-quality distribution facilities west of Miami International Airport. “Once it gets going, it is going to be a game changer for industrial [space] in South Florida.”

There will also be opportunity for those willing to be on the ground in Cuba, says Ralph Gazitua, CEO of WTDC, a Miami-based logistics firm that services the cruise and hospitality industry. Gazitua has been to Cuba about a half-dozen times since last year. He is interested in expanding his logistics operations to Cuba as the cruise and hospitality industry dips its toes into Cuban tourism.

“The whole country has to be rebuilt,” Gazitua says. “There is going to be an explosion once the embargo is lifted.”

Freelance writer Darcie Lunsford is a former real estate editor of the South Florida Business Journal. She is the senior VP for leasing at Butters Group and is avoiding a conflict of interest in her column by not covering her own deals.

You May Also Like
State Legislature Drops the Job Growth Ball

By Gary Press   With Florida facing historically high unemployment because of the COVID-19 pandemic, one would think our state government would be pulling out all of the stops to

Read More
Rethinking Sales Today

Today, more organizations increasingly are facing more competition, rapidly changing technology, slower market growth and less product differentiation. This trend requires business development professionals to manage more accounts, build stronger

Read More
The Future of the Office

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text] As I talked to my many office tenants in the first few weeks of the national shutdown, they were pleasantly surprised

Read More
Is your sales manager managing time well?

Is your sales manager balancing priorities properly? How do you know? Today a big question faced by most executives is, what is my sales manager doing and what should he

Read More
Other Posts
And Justice For All

By Monica St. Omer   Monica St. Omer has been working with me for eight years. She is my right-hand but so much more. She is a wonderful soul who

Read More
Keeping us connected

As a company that doesn’t directly serve the general public, SBA Communications might be called the quiet giant of the South Florida business scene even thought it’s on the S&P

Read More
Lessons learned

As I write this column, South Florida has yet to enter into a phase one reopening, lagging the rest of the state. I hope readers and their businesses are negotiating

Read More
The Unseen Enemy

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text] As I wrote my column in March for the April issue, the COVID-19 virus was just starting to wreak havoc in

Read More

Drew Limsky

Drew Limsky

Editor-in-Chief

BIOGRAPHY

Drew Limsky joined Lifestyle Media Group in August 2020 as Editor-in-Chief of South Florida Business & Wealth. His first issue of SFBW, October 2020, heralded a reimagined structure, with new content categories and a slew of fresh visual themes. “As sort of a cross between Forbes and Robb Report, with a dash of GQ and Vogue,” Limsky says, “SFBW reflects South Florida’s increasingly sophisticated and dynamic business and cultural landscape.”

Limsky, an avid traveler, swimmer and film buff who holds a law degree and Ph.D. from New York University, likes to say, “I’m a doctor, but I can’t operate—except on your brand.” He wrote his dissertation on the nonfiction work of Joan Didion. Prior to that, Limsky received his B.A. in English, summa cum laude, from Emory University and earned his M.A. in literature at American University in connection with a Masters Scholar Award fellowship.

Limsky came to SFBW at the apex of a storied career in journalism and publishing that includes six previous lead editorial roles, including for some of the world’s best-known brands. He served as global editor-in-chief of Lexus magazine, founding editor-in-chief of custom lifestyle magazines for Cadillac and Holland America Line, and was the founding editor-in-chief of Modern Luxury Interiors South Florida. He also was the executive editor for B2B magazines for Acura and Honda Financial Services, and he served as travel editor for Conde Nast. Magazines under Limsky’s editorship have garnered more than 75 industry awards.

He has also written for many of the country’s top newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Boston Globe, USA Today, Worth, Robb Report, Afar, Time Out New York, National Geographic Traveler, Men’s Journal, Ritz-Carlton, Elite Traveler, Florida Design, Metropolis and Architectural Digest Mexico. His other clients have included Four Seasons, Acqualina Resort & Residences, Yahoo!, American Airlines, Wynn, Douglas Elliman and Corcoran. As an adjunct assistant professor, Limsky has taught journalism, film and creative writing at the City University of New York, Pace University, American University and other colleges.