MONTERREY, MEXICO-Grupo Lamosa, a large tile manufacturer, has sold the site of its first industrial building here to the Mira Cos. for $43.1 million. The buyer intends to build about 2,000 apartments, retail and office space on this now-empty lot.

Javier Llaca with Jones Lang LaSalle, who represented the seller, tells GlobeSt.com that it took two years of clean-up activities and wrangling with the city to change the zoning for the property. The 41-acre site was a brownfield, but the seller remediated the property, Llaca says.

The buyer is a real estate private equity fund sponsored by the Black Creek group, which is focused on residential real estate development projects throughout Mexico. The fund’s limited partners are the Signapore government and PSP Investments, Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board.

The former industrial area was overtaken in the past century by residential development, and there’s now a need for solid apartment housing, Llaca says. “Monterrey started to go vertical eight years ago, and there’s lots of demand for new housing, including from the local college, families and retirees. There’s a specific demand for loft-style apartments from 600 square feet to 2,000 square feet,” he says.