The Nashville commercial real estate market is healthy and poised to see new construction, according to first quarter statistics and analysis the local office of Colliers International has released. Bert Mathews, president of The Mathews Company and a partner at Colliers International, said larger tenants are having a difficult time finding space to accommodate growth and expansion.

“Our office market is extremely healthy,” Mathews said. “A lot of tenants in the 25,000- to 50,000-square-foot range looking for places to go.”

The Colliers numbers show the city's direct vacancy rate of 7.9 percent is the lowest it’s been since third quarter 2007. Mathews said those companies wanting to develop an office building and competing for prospective tenants are engaged in "a race" to provide appealing amenities and rental rates.

“Because the market is getting so tight, we will see more new office construction,” he predicted.

Check the Colliers office space information here. Industrial space information can be found here, while office space is here.

To date, the North Gulch has seen very limited activity, with Eleven North being the only significant development within the modestly emerging urban pocket.

Given Northwestern Mutual Real Estate Services officials have not announced a start date for their 30-plus-acre site located north of Charlotte Avenue and, notwithstanding the rehabbing of the building now home to Anthem and the aforementioned Eleven North, the North Gulch continues to be a mixed-use district essentially in name only.

However, the recent demolition of two small buildings that fronted George L. Davis Boulevard and overlooked Interstate 40/65 may have helped place renewed focus on the area.

Nashville-based Professional Real Estate Developers owns six parcels comprising about 1.85 acres, with the Church Street building most recently home to Performance Studios as the last remaining structure on the site. The owners are asking $4 million for the land and the building.

Larry Beadle, a broker with the Nashville office of Colliers International and the man marketing the site, said the land has been for sale since last summer. The site (seen below in an image courtesy of Google Maps) is noteworthy, he said, because it is not common for almost two acres of downtown property with easy interstate access and located essentially between Midtown and the central business district to be assembled and placed on the market.

“It’s a prime location that would be very difficult to assemble today [in the general Gulch area],” Beadle said.

When asked if the demolition has resulted in increased interest from prospective buyers, Beadle simply said, “There is activity on the site.”

Beadle said Professional Real Estate Developers wants to sell the property and invest in another site. He declined to disclose the other property.
 

Colliers International Nashville has added industry veteran Bart Johnston to its brokerage team. Johnston is a Nashville native who has played a role in more than $100 million worth of transactions in the last five years. During the past decade, he worked at Q10/Vista Commercial Mortgage and Cumberland Advisors, where he helped lease the Gateway Village mixed-use development in Franklin and then worked on the Dover Centre complex. Johnston is now working with office, retail and multifamily clients.

“I am happy to welcome Bart to our Colliers family. We have worked with Bart in every stage of his real estate career and look forward to his return to the brokerage business,” said Colliers Managing Partner and President Nate Greene.