The owner of 900 Park Centre Boulevard in Miami Gardens transformed industrial spaces into office and retail uses.
Transwestern
Just west of Miami-Dade County’s Golden Glades Interchange, a warehouse that formerly housed a Miami Herald distribution center is going through a radical transformation. Instead of finding another large scale industrial tenant to take over the space at 900 Park Centre Boulevard, owner Concorde Palmetto Centre divided the warehouse and began targeting traditional office users and large retailers, Bert Checa, vice-president of commercial brokerage Transwestern that is handling the leasing.
In recent months, California Closets, Cambridge College of Healthcare & Technology and Enjoy Technologies, a high-end consumer electronics company created by former Apple retail chief Ron Johnson, have signed leases at 900 Park Centre. “We repositioned the property and went after users that would achieve a higher rental rate for the owner,” Checa said. “The owners purchased it in a distress sale. Their goal from the beginning was to stabilize the property and then sell it.”
At 900 Park Centre, the tenant make up is 30% medical, 30% retail and 20% industrial, Checa said.
Checa said his client doesn’t have a timetable on when the warehouse will go on the market, but that they intend to take advantage of the capital markets that are driving the demand for industrial deals across Miami-Dade. “What is making industrial a hot investment right now are transformations like the one at 900 Park Centre,” Checa said. “Instead of one industrial tenant, you diversify the risk by having medical users, office users and retail users.”
At an annual real estate roundtable put on by law firm Holland and Knight earlier this month, Adam Vaisman, director of acquisitions for Coconut Creek-based commercial developer Butters Construction, said the industrial sector is the hottest asset class because of low vacancy rates and rising rental rates. “With vacancy rates averaging 3 to 4 percent in Miami-Dade and Broward, we are seeing a lot of demand,” Vaisman said. “With the compression in vacancy rates, combined with the lack of land and tenant growth, there is a lot of capital chasing deals in Miami.”
Although, many institutional investors would rather find deals in Miami-Dade than Broward, Vaisman added. “If we put one together in Miami-Dade, we would get 150% more interest than if it was in Broward.”
Alex Mantecon, managing member of real estate investment firm MV Real Estate Holdings, said the industrial market has become so competitive, that some buyers are paying steep prices. “There is not a lot of wiggle room for deals,” he said. “You have funds flush with capital, They feel if they are not placing money, they are making wrong decisions.”