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| Yvonne Baker |
TALLAHASSEE, FL (May 15, 2019) – For the third consecutive year, the
Florida chapters of NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association,
have won a rollback in the business rent tax from 5.7 percent to 5.5 percent.
Office, industrial and retail tenants pay this sales tax on
top of rent and common area maintenance. Florida is the only state in the
nation to impose a sales tax on commercial leases.
Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to sign this bill and commercial
tenants will begin to experience this additional tax relief on Jan. 1, 2020.
“This tax makes Florida’s development and commercial real estate sector
less competitive,” says Yvonne Baker, NAIOP’s 2019 state president and
regional managing partner of Franklin Street in Orlando.
“It zaps money that businesses could otherwise invest in
growth and job creation. NAIOP made dropping more money to the bottom line of
commercial real estate occupiers and owners a top 2019 legislative
priority.”
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| Darcie Lunsford |
Additionally, NAIOP won a major battle in its war against unreasonable
governmental delays and rising costs of getting a building permit. Permitting
fees charged by local governments are user fees.
Robust construction has counties and municipalities taking
in more fee revenue, but their capacity to efficiently process and issue
permits has not proportionately increased.
The new permit transparency
legislation requires local governments publicly post permit and inspection fee
costs and how that revenue is being applied within government
functions.
In a similar accountability initiative, NAIOP also supported legislation
that prohibits a local government from collecting impact fees before issuance
of a building permit except in the case of water and sewer connection. The new
law is effective July 1.
NAIOP Florida also played a key role in passage of several pro-development
provisions in a major property development package that emerged out the state’s
2019 legislative session.
Chief among them is financial relief to developers from
governmental requirements that an affordable housing component be included
within a new project. The new law requires that this cost be fully
offset.
The package also
mandates that local jurisdictions review and respond to development
applications within 30 days and allows attorneys’ fees to be collected by the
prevailing party in a development order challenge.
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| Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis |
“The regulatory and financial burdens thrust upon the shoulders of South
Florida’s commercial real estate and development sectors, while often well
intentioned, create unnecessary hurdles that are frequently counterintuitive to
sensible development and increased prosperity across the board,” says Darcie
Lunsford, president of the South Florida chapter of NAIOP and executive
vice president of Butters.
“These are reasonable, but high-impact, reforms that will
help ensure that South Florida remains an economic juggernaut.”
CONTACT:
Darcie Lunsford
NAIOP Florida President-Elect
954-312-2435
naiop.org.
