Opa-Locka warehouse near Amazon distribution center sells amid rising demand

The owner of Ameriworld, an e-commerce fulfillment company, sold a four-building industrial warehouse in Opa-Locka amid rising demand for affordable industrial space in Miami.

Property records show Alermar II LC, a company owned by Ameriworld CEO Julian Rubio, sold the property for $8 million. The 2.56-acre site includes the 68,000-square-foot warehouse at 14900 Northwest 22nd Court.

The buyer is Esteban Madruga, a primarily multifamily investor.

Benjamin Silver and Sebastian Misiewicz were the listing agents, while Jonathan De La Rosa of Marcus & Millichap represented the buyer.

De La Rosa said the property is a mile from a 1 million-square-foot Amazon distribution center that was recently completed. Due to rising rents, tenants from Hialeah who moved from Doral are now looking to submarkets like Opa-Locka, according to De La Rosa. Rents exceed $12 per square foot.

The market has a 3.7 percent vacancy rate as of the second quarter, according to Marcus & Millichap. De La Rosa said the property sold for below replacement cost.

The building is 97 percent leased with most units in the 750- to 1,000-square-foot range, he said. It has a net operating income of nearly $614,000 a year, according to marketing materials for the property. Ameriworld, the seller’s company, is not a tenant.

Hialeah’s industrial market, like Doral, has seen large transactions. Both cities are also undergoing significant redevelopment into mixed-use projects with apartments, homes, retail and office.

Developer Avra Jain is planning a major adaptive re-use commercial development on about 6 acres of land in east Hialeah.

And in August, Deutsche Bank’s RREEF America paid $178 million for the three-building industrial property at 5801 and 6301 East 10th Avenue in Hialeah, marking South Florida’s largest industrial sale of the year to date.