Miami-Dade County bought a 3.4-acre industrial site for $17 million that it plans to use as staging for improvements and expansion of the nearby international airport.
The county purchased the three lots at 3901 and 3975 Northwest 25th Street, as well as 3900 Northwest 26th Street in unincorporated Miami-Dade, from San Francisco-based Prologis, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The site is east of Miami International Airport.
Miami-Dade commissioners voted 10-0 in favor of the purchase at their Dec. 3 meeting, including signing off on up to $120,000 of closing costs.
The property consists of four one-story and two-story warehouses spanning a combined 77,900 square feet, Vizzda records show. They were completed in 1956 and 1958.
Under the county’s agreement with Prologis, the firm has to demolish at its own cost the buildings by late July, according to a memo from Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to commissioners. The last of the tenants were to move out by November.
Miami-Dade has been working on a $9 billion modernization of the airport, including a new garage and a pair of new hotels, as well as redevelopment of the central terminal’s concourses E and F and expansion of the south terminal, according to the county’s website. Plans also call for a four-story, $400 million cargo facility.
By 2040, 77 million travelers and more than 4 million tons of freight are expected to pass through Miami International Airport, according to the county.
The recently purchased property could be used as parking and staging to support the project, or “for any compatible” purpose that accommodates the growing passenger and cargo traffic at the airport, Levine Cava said in her memo.
The deal marks Miami-Dade’s third major investment in property over the past year. In August, the county paid $26.3 million for a six-story building at 7200 Northwest 19th Street, north of the airport. The county’s aviation department will use the facility as its office and vacate a building at the airport that then can be used to accommodate airport operating needs.
On the heels of that deal, Miami-Dade bought The Current Miami office complex with two buildings at 9250 West Flagler Street in the unincorporated Fontainebleau neighborhood for $182 million in September. The property will house county information technology, regulatory and economic resources, water and sewer and solid waste departments, as well as the Office of Property Appraiser.