MIAMI—GA Telesis, a Fort Lauderdale, FL-based aerospace firm that offers aircraft leasing, overhaul and repair services, just inked a massive lease at Miami's Airport East Distribution Center. The lease totals about 96,389 square feet.

The new lease marks more growth for GA Telesis, which has existing headquarters and composite facility in Fort Lauderdale and two additional repair facilities in Miami. The Airport East Distribution Center location—its fourth in South Florida—will house aircraft parts.

Cushman & Wakefield handled both sides of the transaction. The Fort Lauderdale-based team of executive director Richard Etner, Jr., executive director Christopher Metzger, and senior director Christopher Thomson represented GA Telesis.

“A deal like this with a credit tenant like GA at an older warehouse facility demonstrates there's still a need for functional warehouse space, regardless of the property's age,” says CushWake senior associate Gian Rodriguez. Rodriguez and CushWake executive director Wayne Ramoski represented a joint-venture ownership group that includes Terranova and Blackrock Realty Advisors.

Located at 7000 Northwest 32nd Avenue in Miami, Airport East Distribution Center is a 400,000-square-foot warehouse in the Airport East submarket. Built in 1955, it served as a grocer warehouse before morphing into a multi-tenant industrial facility.

Terranova and Blackrock acquired the industrial facility in September 2013. The companies have invested $2.5 million in capital improvements since taking ownership.

Apparently, those improvements have made the facility more appealing to prospective tenants. In the past year, Ramoski and Rodriguez have helped ownership raise occupancy in the building by 31%.

Will the demand pipeline continue to be strong for industrial in South Florida? Erik Foster, a principal in the capital markets group at Avison Young, thinks so.

“South Florida is a gateway market with access to a significant population base so it will be a viable port and distribution market for quite some time,” Foster tells GlobeSt.com. “We are seeing this type of activity nationally as well, as population growth, brisk port activity, strong logistics linkages, and pro-business environments promote activity in states such as New Jersey, Texas, North Carolina, and California.”