The closing of another large-scale lease is a sign that Miami-Dade County’s industrial market is in full bloom this year.
Colour Republic, a wholesale flower seller and distributor, just agreed to lease 93,000 square feet of warehouse space at Clarion Partners’ Westpointe Business Park in Doral, marking the 12th-biggest lease inked in 2016.
Commercial brokerage Transwestern announced the deal Tuesday. The company’s Thomas Kresse, Ben Eisenberg, Walter Byrd and Carlos Gaviria brokered the deal on behalf of Clarion, while Carlos Velasquez and Tommy Gil of Vivo Real Estate Group brought the tenant.
The announcement described Colour Republic’s lease as long term, though Kresse declined to disclose an exact term or the agreed upon price. However, data from the CoStar Group shows asking rents in the area average $9.21 per square foot.
Kresse told The Real Deal that the deal took about 30 days to come together: freestanding buildings as large as the one Colour Republic leased rarely stay unoccupied for long. The warehouse park’s close proximity to the Miami International Airport is also a big selling point to distributors, especially those in the flower business, which relies heavily on imports.
The lease brings Westpointe Business Park and its 285,000 square feet of rentable space up to 95 percent occupancy, Kresse said. Clarion, investing on behalf of a commingled fund, bought the three-building campus for $38.45 million in 2014, according to county records.
Industrial real estate has proven to be a hot ticket in Miami-Dade this year as the market tightens, both for investors and speculative developers. Some of the most notable recent developments have been Flagler Global Logistics’ massive Flagler Station industrial park, along with Bridge Development Partners’ continuously growing portfolio of warehouse projects in South Florida.