MIAMI—Gramercy Property Trust, a publicly traded REIT based in New York, just acquired a 184,210-square-foot bulk storage distribution in Miami for $10.1 million. NW 112 Street Properties, a private local investor, sold the industrial asset in a sale-leaseback deal.

Located at 3350-3450 Northwest 112th Street in the Gratigny Industrial Park, the seller is a document storage company known as International Data Depository (IDD). IDD will remain in the building as a tenant.

“This transaction is just another example of the tremendous demand for well-located and functional industrial product in the Miami market,” says CBRE vice president Devin White, who represented the buyer in the deal. “Gratigny Industrial Park consistently outperforms the market due to its functional buildings and strong tenant base and as a result, over the years, ownership in the park has become more institutional.”

Built in 1973 and 1979 on a 6.31-acre site, the industrial park features buildings with loading for up to 53-foot box trucks and rail service by CSX. The industrial asset also features 22- to-26-foot clear ceiling heights, and T-5 lighting with motion sensors throughout the warehouse.

“At closing, the vacancy rate in the Gratigny Industrial Park was less than 2% while vacancy throughout the Miami market was 4.6%,” says CBRE associate Andrew Lehrer, who also worked on the deal on behalf of the buyer. “Because of the strong fundamentals of this submarket, Gramercy moved quickly when presented with this off-market opportunity.”

Jason Fox, managing director and co-head of Global Investments at W.P. Carey (WPC), a REIT specializing in corporate sale-leaseback financing, build-to-suit financing and the acquisition of single-tenant net-lease properties, tells GlobeSt.com sale-leasebacks can make sense for companies. WPC announced record 2013 total investment volume at about $1.8 billion.

 “For companies with real assets that are linked to their long-term business strategies a sale-leaseback can provide a source of long-term capital that allows them to redeploy the value of that real estate in their core business,” says Fox. “By selling a corporate facility to a long-term sale-leaseback investor a company can retain operating control over the property while accessing the liquidity embedded in the asset.”