Four months after acquiring a massive development site at Palm Beach Park of Commerce, Woodmont Industrial Partners paid the same seller $21 million for a recently completed warehouse nearby.
An affiliate managed by Eric Witmondt, CEO of the Fairfield, New Jersey-based commercial real estate firm, bought the 212,000-square-foot facility at 15501 Park of Commerce Boulevard in Jupiter. The seller is an affiliate of Atlanta-based TPA Group, records show.
Woodmont Industrial paid $99 a square foot for the warehouse, which is pre-leased to two tenants, a press release states. The buyer obtained a $7.5 million mortgage from Valley National Bank, records show.
TPA recently completed the warehouse after breaking ground last year, the release states. The building has a 36-foot ceiling height clearance, parking for cars and trailers, and a concrete truck court. It was the last Palm Beach Park of Commerce property owned by TPA.
The master-planned industrial park spans 1,300 acres with heavy and light industrial developable land, as well as commercial building sites, according to TPA’s website.
In January, TPA Group sold 116.6 acres at Palm Beach Park of Commerce to Woodmont Industrial for $40.4 million, records show. In a partnership with PCCP and Butters Construction & Development, Woodmont Industrial plans to build eight warehouses, the release states. The first two buildings, spanning a combined 354,390 square feet, are expected to be completed in July 2023.
In a statement, Woodmont Vice President Anthony Amadeo said the firm is “extremely bullish” on Palm Beach County, where the company is building 2 million square feet of industrial space in the next 24 months. Woodmont will continue seeking deals to expand its footprint in South Florida’s industrial market, Amadeo said.
Palm Beach County has a significant need for new industrial space. In the most recent quarter, tenant demand was so high that leasing volume slowed substantially due to a lack of available spaces and new projects, according to a JLL report.
Net absorption shot up to 135,862 square feet in the most recent quarter, compared to 52,247 square feet during the same period of last year. Yet, only 321,000 square feet of new industrial space is currently under construction in Palm Beach County, the report shows. The county had a first quarter vacancy rate of 4.5 percent, and asking rents for industrial tenants averaged $9.47 a square foot.