Jacksonville Retail Market Report

Developers double down on well-performing submarkets. Capping off 2022, Jacksonville noted one of the strongest rent gains nationwide, expanding the average marketed rate more than 8.5 percent. This was due, in part, to strong tenant demand in the metro’s Downtown Northbank and St. Johns County submarkets. Elevated tourism has sparked upcoming hospitality developments across the waterfront, including a showcase Four Seasons project near the Sports Complex, a long-term bet on local foot traffic. Over along the coast in St. Johns County — spanning from Sampson to Matanzas State Forest — net absorption has been consistently positive, even as local inventory grew by the fastest pace in all of Jacksonville. This favorable leasing trend should continue this year, despite the area accounting for over one-third of the new retail space. Common among this pipeline are mixed-use storefront-office properties under 30,000 square feet. With most of the 2023 construction headed to well-performing submarkets, Jacksonville remains positioned to maintain a vacancy rate more than 50 basis points below the national average, even as the metro claims the nation’s third-largest inventory growth metric.