Industrial investors have been active in South Florida’s warehouse market this week, with two buyers closing a pair of deals totaling more than $116 million in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Atlanta-based Republic National Distributing Company, one of the country’s largest alcohol distributors, sold a Deerfield Beach warehouse to an affiliate of Reyes Holdings for $84.1 million.
The 440,700-square-foot distribution warehouse at 441 Southwest 12th Avenue was part of a larger transaction in which Republic National Distributing sold operations in 11 markets to Reyes Beverage Group. Wells Fargo provided a $60.4 million mortgage to the buyer, and the deal worked out to $191 per square foot.
Built in 1991 on a 22.4-acre site west of Interstate 95, the warehouse last traded for $19 million in 2007.
The acquisition comes as Republic National Distributing is laying off 363 employees at the Deerfield Beach facility, but Reyes said it would take over operations and retain workers as part of the transition, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
In a separate deal, New York-based Woodhill Real Estate paid $32 million for a 10-building industrial portfolio in East Hialeah spanning roughly 165,000 square feet. The properties were sold by the Richard Kronenberg Family Trust, ending more than four decades of ownership by the Kronenberg family.
The addresses are 7440 Northwest 66th Street, 7450 Northwest 66th Street, 3671 Northwest 81st Street, 1601 West Eighth Avenue, 1055 East 25th Street, 6800 Northwest 37th Avenue, 8180 Northwest 36th Avenue, 3397 Northwest 67th Street, 6800 Northwest 37th Court and 9875 Northwest 79th Avenue.
Gridline Properties’ Alfredo Riascos and Yonatan Missika represented both the buyer and seller in the transaction. Woodhill paid $194 per square foot.
The portfolio was fully leased at closing to a mix of local and regional tenants that have occupied the buildings for years, according to Alfredo Riascos, a principal and broker at Gridline.
Riascos said Woodhill is inheriting below-market rents that are expected to rise over time as leases roll over. The buyer plans to renovate the properties and modernize the buildings.
Riascos said Chicago-based LaSalle provided acquisition financing for the purchase, but did not disclose the size of the loan.
South Florida’s industrial market is settling into a more balanced phase after years of red-hot growth, according to Matthews’ South Florida industrial market report for the first quarter.
An influx of new warehouse space in the metropolitan areas for Miami and Fort Lauderdale pushed vacancy up to 5.8 percent in the first quarter, while leasing activity slowed, resulting in 1.1 million square feet of negative absorption. Despite this, demand from logistics, distribution and e-commerce tenants remained strong, and asking rents continued to climb, rising 1.2 percent year-over-year to $18.64 per square foot. Smaller industrial properties are especially competitive, and market watchers expect conditions to stabilize as new construction slows and recently completed projects are leased up.
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