By Brian Bandell – Real Estate Editor, South Florida Business Journal
Dec 23, 2024
Butters Construction & Development acquired two properties in Miami-Dade County on Dec. 20 for a combined $41 million.
Adam Vaisman, senior managing director of the Coconut Creek-based company, said both deals will set up spec industrial development with new warehouses.
In the bigger deal, Butters purchased the 7.7-acre site at 4995 N.E. 77th Ave. for $22 million from Wellmeaning MDU Palmetto LLC, managed by Eduardo Pelaez in Miami. Currently with a truck parking lot and an auto service building, the property last traded for $13 million in 2023. That means it had a big gain in value.
Vaisman said Butters will develop this site on the east side of the Palmetto Expressway with about 140,000 square feet of industrial. It aims to break ground on Power Logistics in the second quarter of 2025, as the site plan was already approved.
He said it’s a great location because the building will have signage that will be visible from the busy Palmetto Expressway and there’s less traffic exiting the highway to the east, as compared to the busier west side with Doral.
At the same time, Butters acquired the 6.1-acre vacant site at the northwest corner of Northwest 15th Avenue and Northwest 123rd Street in Medley from Cincinnati-based uniform maker Cintas Corp. for $19 million. The property last sold for $6.18 million in 2007, so it also gained in value. It’s located near Florida’s Turnpike.
Vaisman said Pinetree Logistics in Medley would total 128,000 square feet in two warehouses and they hope to break ground in the second quarter of 2025.
Both Power Logistics and Pinetree Logistics were designed by Boca Raton-based Arcadis.
Vaisman said both buildings would have spec office suites in the front and be targeted for tenants seeking about 30,000 square feet. There’s more demand for those mid-sized tenants now that large tenants looking to lease out a full building, he said.
“We feel the most leasing velocity occurs in the 20,000- to 40,000-square-foot size and, therefore, we are building to target that size tenant,” Vaisman said. “We’re going back to pre-Covid absorption and pre-Covid tenant demand.”
There was a surge of industrial leasing during the pandemic that caused rents to soar and vacancy rates to plunge. Over the past year, industrial activity has calmed down a bit.
According to the third quarter report from Colliers, the industrial vacancy rate in Miami-Dade County was 4.9%, up from 2.6% in the same period a year ago. The average asking rent for warehouse space decreased to $16.42 per square foot, from $17.16 per square foot. There was 4.92 million square feet of industrial under construction, including 3.17 million square feet in Medley/Hialeah Gardens and 328,736 square feet in Miami Airport West (including the Palmetto Expressway).