Sold! Online auto auctioneer pays $35M for Homestead land

Copart USA plans to use the site to store vehicles in the event of a natural disaster

Itai Kathein and Jay Adair with the distribution center on the property (Credit: Google Maps)
Itai Kathein and Jay Adairwith the distribution center on the property (Credit: Google Maps)

Going … going … gone. A publicly traded provider of online car auctions paid $34.75 million for 117 acres of land in the Homestead Park of Commerce.

Copart USA, founded in 1982 and based in Dallas, bought the land at Southeast 36th Avenue and Southwest 336th Street. The site includes a 32,453-square-foot Class A distribution warehouse, according to a release.

The seller is Sure Equity Partners, a Plantation-based private equity firm led by tech entrepreneur Itai Kathein. Sure Equity bought the land in November 2018 for about $20 million, records show.

Copart will use the site to store vehicles in the event of a natural disaster. The site also features a 17-acre lake slated Copart hopes to improve with a walking trail for public recreation, according to the release.

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JLL’s Brian Smith, Audley Bosch and Matt Maciag represented the seller. Ed Redlich of ComReal represented the buyer, according to the release.

JLL called it the largest industrial land sale recorded in Miami-Dade County over the past three years.

Copart operates more than 200 locations across 11 countries and has more than 175,000 vehicles for auction a day, according to its website. In September, the company reported net income of $165.5 million for the quarter ended July 31. It previously bought a massive industrial site in the Charleston neighborhood of Staten Island for $13.9 million in 2016.

Other industrial projects proposed for the Homestead area include an Amazon distribution center and a 145,000-square-foot distribution facility west of the motor racing track.