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Easton adds Miami-Dade warehouse to industrial portfolio
Doral-based commercial real estate development and investment firm paid $14M for the 76K sf building
UPDATED, Sept. 20, 1 p.m.: The Easton Group nabbed a northwest Miami-Dade warehouse, beefing up its South Florida industrial portfolio.
An Easton affiliate paid $14.3 million for the 76,000-square-foot building at 3121 Northwest 125th Street, records show. The deal breaks down to $188 a square foot.
The buyer obtained a $7 million mortgage from the seller, Hammersmith Limited Partnership, led by President Steven Hammersmith, records show. CBRE represented the seller.
In 1995, a Hammersmith affiliate paid $474,000 for the 2.7-acre site and completed the warehouse in 1998, according to property records.
Easton Group’s Dalton Easton said the property was not officially listed, but that his firm did have to compete with other bidders. “There really wasn’t an asking price,” Easton said. “It was just whoever put in the best offer to buy the property. We are trying to add well-located, functioning buildings to our portfolio. We believe this is one of them.”
Doral-based Easton Group, a commercial real estate development and investment firm, was founded in 1974 by CEO Edward Easton.
In April, another Easton affiliate also paid $14.3 million for a 5.8-acre outdoor industrial site with a 30,000-square-foot truck terminal in Hollywood.
South Florida’s industrial market continues to put in a strong performance. In the second quarter, industrial landlords across the tri-county region raised average asking rents by more than $1, year-over-year, including a $3 increase in Palm Beach County, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The vacancy rate in all three counties dropped below 4 percent in the second quarter, the report shows.
“There are scarce opportunities to buy,” Easton said. “But the industrial market is still competitive. There’s a lot of tenant demand and a lot of industrial capital being pushed toward Miami-Dade.”
Easton Group is among the most active industrial buyers in South Florida. In December, the firm paid $6.5 million for a 9-acre development site in Riviera Beach where Easton has city-approved plans for a truck terminal. Last year, Easton and its partner LBA Logistics paid $29.4 million for a 26.4-acre property in Hialeah where the joint venture is developing two spec warehouses totaling 463,000 square feet.
Boca Raton-based real estate investor James Batmasian recently jumped into the highly competitive South Florida industrial market. Last month, Batmasian paid $15.5 million for a portfolio of three industrial properties in Lake Park, Mangonia Park and Riviera Beach.
Also in August, Sunny Isles Beach investor Yakov Cohen paid $10.7 million for an Aventura industrial complex spanning 35,000 square feet. The sale price equated to more than $300 a square foot.