Liberty Property Trust wins bid for Dania Beach industrial site

Liberty Property Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of Liberty Property Trust, just won the bid to develop a 24-acre industrial site in Dania Beach.

The Malvern, Pennsylvania-based REIT submitted a winning bid of $14.25 million to build a 260,000-square-foot industrial/distribution facility, according to its proposal. The city of Fort Lauderdale started soliciting bids for the city-owned property at 4030 State Road 7 in August.

Five teams — including affiliates of Bridge Development Partners, Foundry Commercial, Prologis and a joint venture between Butters Construction & Development and Cabot Properties, Inc. — submitted bids. Minimum bids started at $13.226 million.

Colliers International’s Steve Wasserman, Ken Krasnow and Brooke Berkowitz represented the city in the sale. The trade marks one of Colliers’ first assignments from the city of Fort Lauderdale under its new contract to help manage the city’s real estate and dispose of surplus properties. As part of the deal, Colliers collected a commission equal to 4 percent of the sale price.

The site, just south of I-595, sits near an active landfill. Prior to the sale, the the Fort Lauderdale Police Department used the property, which originally served as a composting site, for motor vehicle training.

Liberty Property Trust has recently been turning its focus on industrial real estate. In October 2016, the REIT sold 108 office and flex properties in Pennsylvania, Florida, Minnesota and Arizona to Workspace Property Trust and its partner Safanad for $969 million.

The REIT owns an $8.5 billion portfolio of industrial and office space spread across 100 million square feet of properties throughout the U.S. and the U.K, according to its website.