Fort Lauderdale’s first-ever Walmart fetches $26M

The brand new Fort Lauderdale Walmart Supercenter
The brand new Fort Lauderdale Walmart Supercenter

Fort Lauderdale got its first-ever Walmart Supercenter in January, and now the property’s 20-year ground lease was just bought by investors for $26.06 million.

The 189,543-square-foot shopping center is part of the 36-acre Riverbend Marketplace project at 2500 West Broward Boulevard, near I-95.

It was built by Gatlin Development, a Tennessee real estate firm that specializes in building and managing shopping centers. The company is also developing the rest of Riverbend.

Walmart had been looking at placing a center in Fort Lauderdale for the past 30 years before committing to this particular project, according to a news release for the sale.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

The buyer is an investor who used the property to satisfy a 1031 exchange. Those types of exchanges are part of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code that allow a property owner to sell his holdings and reinvest in a similar property while deferring taxes.

“The property received a tremendous amount of interest, especially from New York-based all-cash buyers in 1031 exchanges who wanted to deploy capital in South Florida,” Lori Schneider, senior vice president of investments at Marcus & Millichap’s Fort Lauderdale office, said in the release. “The asset is an especially attractive investment option as large, high-quality net-leased properties are scarce. This particular Walmart is the retailer’s newest prototype.”

Schneider and the Aztec Group represented Gaitlin for the sale. Meanwhile, Drew A. Kristol and Kirk D. Olson, also of Marcus & Millichap, represented the buyer. The sale has not yet cleared public records, so the buyer’s identity is unknown.  Sean Stewart-Muniz