Bridge scores $22M financing to build Fort Lauderdale industrial project

Bridge Development Partners, a business park builder based in Chicago, just sealed a $22.6 million financing deal for its upcoming two-building project in Fort Lauderdale.

The developer announced Thursday that JPMorgan Chase Bank signed off on an interim loan covering Bridge’s 17.5-acre development site at 2200 West Sunrise Boulevard.

With financing in hand, Bridge plans on breaking ground immediately, according to a release.

Plans for the project call for separate 166,370-square-foot and 140,096-square-foot buildings, which are aimed at tenants who need as little as 10,000 square feet all the way up to fully occupying both buildings with 306,466 square feet.

Dubbed Bridge Point I-95, the development will be built over the bones of a 65-year-old concrete pipe manufacturing plant that’s inoperative. The Chicago developer plans on delivering both buildings by the end of this year.

The developer said it likes the submarket around Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport because of its proximity to major highways like I-95 and I-595 — a major selling point for industrial buildings — as well as Port Everglades and the airport itself.

Besides this latest project in Fort Lauderdale, Bridge is also far along in a three-phased Hialeah Gardens industrial project totaling roughly 1 million square feet.

“The industrial market in South Florida is strong, but there is not enough new product available with the features tenants need to meet current demand,” Bridge principal Kevin Carroll said in the release. “With the closing of interim financing, we are breaking ground on these speculative buildings to help fill the unmet need in the market.” — Sean Stewart-Muniz