Family of former Florida House speaker sells Miami Lakes warehouse to cigar company

The family of the previous speaker of Florida’s House of Representatives sold a Miami Lakes warehouse for $6 million to the owner of their cigar business.

The Oliva family, which includes Republican politician and former CEO Jose Oliva, sold the warehouse at 13955 Northwest 60th Avenue to Fumoir Real Estate, whose leadership includes Oliva Cigar Company CEO Cory Bappert and Frederik Vandermarliere, CEO of Belgium-based J. Cortes Cigars. (Fumoir is French for “smoking room.”)

J. Cortes acquired the Oliva Cigar Company in 2016, but the Oliva family held onto the tobacco growing operation, according to a J. Cortes press release. In February of this year, the Oliva family sold their leaf operations and tobacco farms in Nicaragua to J. Cortes.

The Oliva family bought the Miami Lakes warehouse in 2011 for $2.1 million, property records show. The 40,000-square-foot warehouse was listed in July for $6.3 million, according to online marketing materials.

The warehouse was built in 1964 and features seven loading docks and 18.5-foot-high ceilings. It sits on a 2.6-acre property.

Family patriarch Gilberto Oliva Sr., who founded the company, died in 2017 at age 86.

Jose Oliva was elected to the Florida House in 2011, and became House speaker in 2018. Bappert replaced Jose Oliva as CEO of Oliva Cigar Company in 2018. Jose Oliva’s House term ended in November.

Last month, a medical device manufacturer paid $15 million for a 156,000-square-foot industrial building also in Miami Lakes, and in July, Brookfield Property Partners paid more than $22 million for a warehouse at 14100 Northwest 60th Avenue, near the Oliva property.