City Furniture leases Miami Gardens distribution center

City Furniture leased a nearly 287,000-square-foot building at Bridge Point Commerce Center in Miami Gardens, another deal marking the strength of South Florida’s industrial market.

The Fort Lauderdale-based furniture retailer led by founder Keith Koenig will open a distribution center at Bridge Development Partners’ under-construction industrial complex, according to a news release.

Once completed, Bridge Point Commerce Center at 4310 Northwest 215th Street will have 2.6 million square feet across 185 acres. It’s on the southeast corner of Florida’s Turnpike extension and Northwest 47th Avenue.

The three-building first phase finished in January totals 1.1 million square feet.

City Furniture’s 286,991-square-foot lease of building C brought up occupancy at the first phase to 80 percent. HapCor, a top grocery retailer and distributor to the Caribbean and Latin America, is another tenant.

Chicago-based Bridge Development is working on the second phase with two buildings totaling 1.5 million square feet. It’s to be completed in 2023.

The industrial project also allows for easy access to the Turnpike, which played a role in City Furniture choosing this location over other sites, the retailer’s Ryan Cronin said in the release. City Furniture is expanding in part to continue its same-day deliveries throughout Miami-Dade County, said Cronin, director of real estate and finance.

Bridge Development, one of the biggest builders of industrial space in Miami-Dade, is led by Steve Poulos, with Aaron Hirschl as vice president and Kevin Carroll as lead Southeast regional partner overseeing Florida projects.

It has completed 7 million square feet of industrial space in the county since entering the market in 2012, with a current portfolio of 3 million square feet, according to the release.

The South Florida industrial market was strong even before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and is the only commercial asset class to prosper during Covid, largely because of e-commerce growth.

This has made for an active few months for investment sales and construction financing.

Bridge Development last week scored a $78.3 million construction loan for its three-building complex west of Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport.

This came on the heels of the Easton Group scoring in March a $12 million loan for a Doral spec warehouse at 1500 Northwest 97th Avenue.

At roughly the same time, Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Ryan Companies scored a $28.2 million for a Kendall e-commerce warehouse on 10 acres on the intersection of Southwest 136th Street and 132nd Avenue.