Caterpillar exercised its lease option to buy the property for $18.2 million or $60.66 per sf, then sold the property to Lincoln for $11.9 million or $39.67 per sf—below replacement costs. Lincoln funded the acquisition internally.

The parties aren't saying why the deal was done this way.

The building is located at 9350 NW 108 Ave. in Florida's largest business park. Caterpillar previously occupied a small amount of space in the building but is no longer a tenant there.

Flagler Development completed the state-of-the-art building in June 2001 as a build-to-suit for the tenant. It is the largest contiguous block of vacant warehouse space in South Florida, Flagler says.

Flagler expects a pre-tax third-quarter gain of about $5.5 million its sale of the building.

Harry E. Wardell and Steven J. Medwin, both vice presidents with Lincoln Property Co. in Miami, represented Lincoln PO Miami LP in the latest transaction. Mike Silver of CB Richard Ellis' Miami office represented Caterpillar.

Wardell and Medwin will market the property for the new owner. The asking rental rate is $6.25 per sf per year, on an industrial gross basis. The building may be subdivided into 50,000 sf.

Wardell is optimistic about leasing out the building. He tells GlobeSt.com that there are two 300,000-sf and two 150,000-sf tenants in the marketplace that Lincoln already has made proposals to.

"If we fill the building up in the next 12 months, we've done extremely well," Wardell tells GlobeSt.com. "If that happens, we've made a great deal. We think we can do it in much less time than that."

Caterpillar could not be reached for comment at press time. Caterpillar Inc. of Peoria, IL, which owns Caterpillar Logistics, is a manufacturer of heavy equipment such as tractors and engines. Caterpillar was founded in 1925.

Flagler Development owns Beacon Station, which will consist of more than nine million sf of office, warehouse and retail space on 960 acres when completed. Currently, Beacon Station contains 30 buildings with 3.3 million sf.