The assignment came after Duke's local leasing director resigned to take a post with ProLogis, and it is the first time the company has assigned leasing of the buildings it owns in South Florida to CBRE. Duke will continue to manage the buildings.

"Consolidation with a single leasing agent for these properties will allow us to better leverage, brand and market our properties to tenants," says Doug Irmscher, SVP of Duke's Florida operations, in a statement. He is based in the company's Orlando office.

"It's unusual to get an assignment of this size," Travis Herring, senior associate with the CBRE team, tells GlobeSt.com. The leasing team includes Herring; Deanna Lobinsky, first VP; and associate Andrew Ackerman. At present, all of the buildings but one, the six-story, 230,000-sf Sawgrass Pointe, are 100% leased, and it is 95% leased, Herring says.

The asking rental rate in Sawgrass Pointe is $16 per sf, plus operating expenses, which takes the overall rate to about $15 per sf, Herring says. Like Sawgrass Pointe, Sawgrass Commerce Center, which consists of two single-story buildings aggregating 153,246 sf, is located in Sawgrass Park of Commerce. Herring declined to disclose the asking rate at the commerce center duo, but, on condition of anonymity, an area broker says the rate in the single-story structures would be "a few dollars-per-sf below rates at Sawgrass Pointe."

The additional properties are Weston Pointe I, II, III and IV in Weston. Each is about 100,000 sf, and the fourth building is under construction, due for completion this April and fully preleased to KOS Pharmaceuticals Inc. "Weston is a tight little market, the hottest in Broward County," Herring says. "The base rent of $21.50 per sf, plus operating expenses, takes the total asking rental rate in Weston to about $30 per sf."