Reese Stigliano, Senior Vice President with Brenner Real Estate Group, with associate John Sokolowsky, represented AA Varco Moving & Storage in the sale of a 23,808-square-foot industrial facility located in Deerfield Beach.
Stigliano and Sokolowsky also represented AA Varco in its relocation to a larger 31,284-square-foot warehouse. The strength of the Broward County industrial market made the sale a relatively easy transaction. But the lack of available industrial space also made the location to a larger location very difficult.
According to Stigliano,”Broward County’s industrial market is perhaps the strongest it’s been in the last 10 years. Current industrial occupancy is 95%. Lack of industrial zoned land is creating a boom for owners of existing industrial space. The tight market is driving rental rates and prices of industrial buildings through the roof. Rental rates that several years ago were in the $5-6 dollar per square foot range are now over $9.00/ square foot. Prices of existing industrial buildings are rivaling office building prices.”
The warehouse, located at 1821 SW 42nd Way in Deerfield, sold for $2.8 million, representing a sale price of more than $117 per square foot.
“We had our first offer within 24 hours after the property was listed,” said Stigliano.
The eight-year-old building, situated on 1.58 acres, is a modern industrial building with 24 ft. clear height, dock high loading and hurricane impact windows and doors.
Once the building was under contract, the real challenge had to be addressed: identifying a larger, suitable facility to relocate and expand into. After several weeks of searching the diminutive inventory of available space, an older warehouse, formerly occupied by another moving company, was identified. A five-year lease valued at more than $1.2 million for 31,284 square feet was signed with the landlord, Suddath Relocation Systems of Fort Lauderdale.
When asked about the overall commercial real estate market, Reese said, “The shift away from retail stores to e-commerce has created an enormous demand for more modern and larger warehouses. Consequently, the industrial warehouse, once the unadorned, no frills investment is now the ‘darling’ of the commercial real estate world commanding cap rates in the 5-6% range, which was unheard of several years ago.”
