LA firm nabs Sunrise industrial building for $13M

Optimum Nutrition occupies single-tenant, 75K sf facility built in 2000

403 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway (Google Maps)
403 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway (Google Maps)

A Los Angeles-based commercial real estate firm scored a fully leased, single-tenant industrial building in Sunrise at a time available properties in South Florida are becoming scarce.

An affiliate of Safco Capital Corporation, headed by President John Safi, bought the 75,026-square-foot warehouse in the 612-acre Sawgrass International Corporate Park for $13.4 million, according to records. The seller is an entity led by Michael J. Costello of Ocala.

Safco manages 30 commercial properties with more than 3 million square feet and more than 500 tenants, primarily in California, according to the company’s website.

The building at 403 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway was built in 1989 and last sold for $3.6 million in 2000, records show.

It is leased to Optimum Nutrition, a publicly traded distributor of workout supplements, according to a press release. An Avison Young team led by David Duckworth and Michael T. Fay marketed the site for the seller.

The warehouse sits on 5 acres of the Sawgrass corporate park, which is the largest industrial park in Broward. The property is bounded by I-595, I-75 and Sunrise Boulevard, Duckworth said in a statement.

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Optimum Nutrition has occupied the facility for more than 13 years and currently has five years remaining on its lease, which has built-in annual rate increases, making the property an attractive investment, Duckworth said.

Broward County’s industrial market continues to outperform all other asset types throughout 2021, reporting a 6.3 percent overall vacancy rate in the third quarter, according to an Avison Young report. The property is located in the active West Sunrise industrial market, where lower average rents provide investors the opportunity to create additional value in the long term, Duckworth said.

South Florida’s industrial market flourished throughout the pandemic, creating fierce competition for existing warehouse properties and land for new construction, according to brokers. In the coming months, the industrial market could slow down due to a lack of available spaces and developable land for sale, Sebastian Juncadella, an adviser with Fairchild Partners, told The Real Deal.

“We are really running out of land and have to find super creative ways for industrial buildings,” Juncadella said. “Every county is in a tough spot. I don’t think there will be a desire to slow down, but it may happen if we don’t have sites for new projects.”

Recently, Jet Aviation, a subsidiary of publicly traded General Dynamics, signed a 40-year sublease valued at more than $120 million at AVE Aviation & Commerce Center in Opa-locka. Landlord AVE Airside, led by warehouse developer Ernesto Cambo, will build 170,000 square feet of hangars and a base of operations on roughly 28 acres.

In Davie, a joint venture between Industrial Outdoor Ventures and Stockbridge Real Estate paid $64 million for the Twin Lakes Travel Park. The 38.5-acre former RV Park can be redeveloped into a single or multi-tenant industrial site ranging from 50,000 square feet to 400,000 square feet, according to a listing.