Bridge Industrial scooped up the Pompano Beach Commerce Park industrial complex for $46.3 million, amid strong investor appetite for South Florida’s robust logistics real estate market.
The Chicago-based industrial real estate investor and operator scooped up the three-building property on the southwest corner of North Powerline Road and Northwest 16th Street from Delray Beach-based Redfearn Capital, records show. The properties are at 1543, 1541 and 1551-1571 North Powerline Road.
Jose Lobon of CBRE closed the deal on behalf of the seller.
The campus, constructed at intervals between 1984 and 1999, totals 336,852 square feet, property records show. Redfearn, led by Alexander Redfearn, bought the buildings in 2019 for $26.3 million.
Bridge plans capital improvements, including roof replacement, landscaping and parking lot upgrades, according to a news release from Bridge. This is the company’s first purchase part of its newly launched value-add strategy, the release says.
Value-add investments focus on improving existing, often older properties and raising rents.
South Florida industrial real estate prospered during the 2020 lockdown partly because of the growth of e-commerce, and continued its upswing in 2021. The market is tight partly because demand for industrial space is high but the supply can’t keep up, largely because the region is land-constrained and developable sites for new industrial properties are scarce.
Industrial real estate continued to prosper this year, as vacancies dipped, leasing soared and rents increased in the third quarter, according to a Colliers report. In Broward County, where Pompano Beach Commerce Park is located, the average vacancy dropped to 5.6 percent in the third quarter, down from 6.6 percent during the same period in 2020.
Bridge Industrial, led by Steve Poulos, is one of the biggest industrial developers in South Florida. Its portfolio spans more than 5 million square feet of properties and an additional 2.5 million under construction, according to the release.
Bridge bought the majority of the mixed-use AVE, Aviation and Commerce Centre business park west of the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport in 2019 for $126 million by buying the land lease.
Bridge scored a $78.3 million construction loan in March to add three more buildings at AVE.