Liberty Property Trust sold an industrial property in Fort Lauderdale for $6.3 million, amid continuing demand in South Florida for warehouse space.
Liberty, soon to be acquired by Prologis, sold the two-building industrial/office complex, Fort Lauderdale Commerce Center, at 5410-5430 Northwest 33rd Avenue. GDF Properties, a Puerto Rico-based investment firm, bought the property, said Roberto Susi, principal of Axiom Capital Advisors.
Jonathan Salk of Axiom Capital Advisors represented the seller in the off-market deal. Reshma Parvani of Parvani Commercial Group represented the buyer.
The buildings total 63,266 square feet on 5.24 acres, records show.
Liberty paid $4.75 million for the property in 1997. The buildings were built in 1984, according to records. Currently, only two tenants occupy the property, a forensic engineering firm and a digital printing company. A tenant that had occupied 42,000 square feet recently left, Susi said.
“The buyer thought it was a good time to purchase this property due to the increasing rental rates in this market and the ability to reposition this big vacancy,” he said.
In October, Prologis agreed to acquire Liberty Property Trust in an all-stock deal valued at $12.6 billion, including the assumption of debt. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter. At the same time, Prologis said it plans to dispose of $3.5 billion of assets, including $2.8 billion of logistics properties and $700 million of office properties.
The South Florida industrial market has seen growing demand, due in part to the growth of e-commerce.
Warehouse asking rents in Broward County have continued to rise even as an influx of new industrial product is coming to the market. In the third quarter of last year, average industrial asking rents rose to $8.89 per square foot from $8.16 per square foot in the same period of 2018, according to Colliers International South Florida.