Logistics firm pays $17M for Brownsville industrial site

Miami-based logistics firm Bulk Express Transport snagged an industrial site in the city’s Brownsville neighborhood for $17 million.

A Bulk Express affiliate paid $3.8 million per acre for the 4.4-acre site with a 14,000-square-foot warehouse, according to Vizzda. The buyer obtained a $13 million mortgage from Banesco USA. 

The seller, CUSA Investments managed by Jose Francisco Da Costa Gomez in Miami, paid $650,000 for the property in 2001, records show. The site has been used as a truck and container outdoor storage facility. The warehouse was completed in 1958, records show. 

Founded more than 30 years ago, Bulk Express provides long haul transportation services of municipal solid waste, recyclables, construction and demolition debris, contaminated soils, ash, sludge and other materials, according to a press release. In December, Fort Lauderdale-based private investment firm Alterna Equity Partners acquired Bulk Express and its affiliates. 

The industrial sector’s scorching run since the onset of the pandemic appears to be showing signs of slowing down. Nationwide, industrial sales fell 30 percent last year compared to 2021, according to CommercialEdge data. In 2022, the industrial market experienced $88.3 billion in sales volume, compared to $125.7 billion a year earlier. 

South Florida’s industrial market also showed signs of softening. In last year’s fourth quarter, the vacancy rate rose to 4 percent, compared to 3.4 percent during the same period of 2021, according to a Newmark report. Leasing activity in the tri-county region dipped to 3.6 million square feet in 2022’s fourth quarter, compared to 6.3 million square feet in the preceding quarter. 

In another sign the industrial market is weakening, Triarch Capital Group last month paid $1.2 million per acre for a 6.1-acre industrial outdoor storage facility in Hialeah Gardens. In early 2022, similar properties were trading for $2.5 million to $3 million an acre, according to South Florida industrial brokers.