Brookfield Properties bought a Doral warehouse used as the headquarters for a flower distributor and importer for $16 million.
Brookfield purchased the facility at 1500 Northwest 95th Avenue from an affiliate of The USA Bouquet Company, according to records and the seller’s website.
The 115,000-square-foot facility was constructed in 1988 on 6.5 acres, property records show. It last traded for $7 million in 2003. The building includes 75,000 square feet of cold storage and 12 loading docks, according to The USA Bouquet Company’s website.
The firm was formed in 2001 when it bought The USA Floral Products Bouquet Division. It services California, New York, Texas, Georgia, New Jersey and Kentucky through facilities in those states, the company’s website shows.
Brookfield, a Canadian alternative investor and asset manager, has a real estate arm led by Brian Kingston, according to Brookfield’s website.
The Doral warehouse purchase comes as Brookfield is facing financial woes on some of its office properties elsewhere in the U.S. Last month, it defaulted on a $161.4 million mortgage tied to roughly a dozen office buildings in the Washington, D.C., area.
Also in April, a receiver was appointed to oversee Brookfield’s Gas Company Tower at 555 West Fifth Street in downtown Los Angeles, after the firm defaulted on a pair of loans on the property, for $210 million and $140 million.
In February, Brookfield also defaulted on $319 million in loans tied to the office tower at 777 South Figueroa Street in downtown L.A.
South Florida’s industrial market is a steadier asset class.
Miami-Dade County’s industrial asking rents jumped 14 percent in the first quarter, year-over-year, to $14.25 a square foot, according to a CBRE report. Still, leasing remained more or less flat in the first quarter compared to the same time period last year, as tenants absorbed 1.4 million square feet, while developers delivered 3.1 million square feet.
In other Doral industrial deals, Miami Beach-based real estate investor Laurent Groll paid $18.1 million for two adjacent buildings at 8280 Northwest 64th Street and 6350 Northwest 82nd Avenue in November.
In January, Ares Management dropped $111.1 million for a Countyline Corporate Park development site on the northwest corner of Northwest 154th Street and West 40th Avenue in Hialeah. Ares plans two buildings, each spanning 214,000 square feet, and a third spanning 193,000 square feet