A Butters Group joint venture sold a recently completed Plantation warehouse to a pharmacy owner for $29.8 million. The sale is tied to an ongoing commission lawsuit.
An entity managed by Butters’ partner Arvinder Bajaj in Plantation sold Sunrise Logistics Center at 6801 West Sunrise Boulevard, records and Vizzda show. An entity managed by David Rabbani, president of Hallandale Pharmacy in Dania Beach, paid roughly $290 per square foot for the 102,913-square-foot industrial building that was completed earlier this year.
Rabbani’s entity took out a $20 million mortgage with Israel Discount Bank of New York, records and Vizzda show.
Bajaj’s entity paid $2.6 million for the nearly 6-acre site in 2014. In 2021, Bajaj and Coconut Creek-based Butters teamed up to tear down a 52,000-square-foot warehouse that was previously on the property and then built a larger facility, according to published reports. Bajaj owns a manufacturing business, AB Diversified Industries, that is headquartered in a neighboring site at 6825 West Sunrise Boulevard in Plantation.
Sunrise Logistics Center is at the center of a pending Miami-Dade civil lawsuit against Bajaj’s entity, Butters’ real estate brokerage subsidiary and Rabbani. In the complaint, Avison Young alleges that the seller, the buyer and Butters’ realty arm are refusing to honor a broker’s commission agreement.
Avison Young’s Tom Viscount allegedly spearheaded the off-market deal and is entitled to half of the 6 percent commission of the sale, the lawsuit alleges. The complaint contains copies of alleged text messages Rabbani sent Viscount notifying the Avison Young broker that Butters didn’t want to involve any commercial brokers in the deal.
Butters CEO Malcolm Butters denied that Avison Young is owed a commission. He also said the brokerage and Viscount did not have a commission agreement.
In northwest Miami-Dade County, Butters teamed up with Charleston, South Carolina-based Greystar to build Miami Midway Park, a 505,500-square-foot, four-building industrial complex currently under construction. In June, Butters and Greystar landed a second tenant at Miami Midway Park, with GLB Trucking signing a lease for 52,000 square feet.