MIAMI-A joint venture between Miami Beach-based Terranova Corp. and locally based BlackRock Realty Advisors has acquired a 400,000-sf industrial building at 7100 NW 32nd Ave. for $15 million.

The 18-acre property has long been used for grocery distribution by Associated Grocers. The site is next to Federated Department Stores' logistics facility and a few blocks from a planned 200,000-sf Wal-Mart Supercenter. "This site is ideally located between Miami International Airport, the Opa Locka Airport and the Port of Miami, a location that will enable users to serve cargo transit at all three facilities and avoid the intense traffic west of the airport," says Terranova Corp. chairman Stephen Bittel.

Immediate plans for the property include a $2.5-million investment to upgrade both the vacant warehouse and the appearance of the facility. "Our purchase price of $15 million is well below replacement cost and will allow us to participate in the increase in values ahead, as the surrounding area continues to improve."

This is the first of several acquisitions planned in the area for the venture, which has already completed transactions worth almost $200 million. Previous deals completed by the venture include the Weston Distribution Center in Weston, a 10-building retail and office portfolio in Miami Beach and Coral Gables and the Westbrook Plaza Shopping Center in Pembroke Pines.

Among reasons the joint venture may be targeting the area is its strong market fundamentals. According to a CB Richard Ellis Q2 industrial market report, demand continues to outpace supply in the Airport-West Dade industrial submarket. Thus far this year, the submarket has witnessed 1,139,660 sf of positive absorption which has resulted in a drop in vacancies from 4.6% last year to 3.5% this year. This is a record low for the submarket. In Q2, rental rates for class A industrial space reached $8 per sf, the report states.