Crowley Maritime Expands, Consolidates to Flagler Station Space
Crowley inked a long-term lease extension and expansion totaling 179,672 square feet to completely occupy a building in Flagler Station Phase II.
MIAMI—Marine energy and logistics firm Crowley Maritime Corp. has signed a lease for nearly 180,000 square feet of industrial space at Flagler Station and subleased more than 106,000 square feet of space it formerly occupied in Doral.
Crowley’s space requirements that eventually involved 285,985 square feet of direct lease and sublease transactions that consolidated its Miami-Dade operations were reported by commercial brokerage firm Transwestern. Senior managing directors Ben Eisenberg and Walter Byrd, managing director Thomas Kresse, and VP Carlos Gaviria facilitated the transactions on behalf of Crowley Maritime.
Crowley inked a long-term lease extension and expansion totaling 179,672 square feet to completely occupy a building in Flagler Station Phase II at 10205 NW 108th Ave. in the Medley submarket of Miami-Dade County.
In a second deal, Crowley subleased 106,313 square feet of a 148,750-square-foot, fully renovated, Class A distribution building it previously occupied in International Corporate Park at 9950 NW 17th St. in Doral to transport services company Aeropost International Services Inc. Nick Wigoda and Steve Medwin of Newmark Knight Frank’s Miami office represented Aeropost in the sublease. Crowley continues to occupy the remaining 42,437 square feet at the building.
The tight Miami-Dade industrial market necessitated a complicated series of transactions to accommodate Crowley’s space requirements, according to Transwestern’s Eisenberg. Miami-Dade County currently sports a 4.8% industrial vacancy rate, and Medley and Doral continue to be two of the most in-demand and active industrial submarkets.
Crowley’s decision to combine most of its Doral operations to the entire free-standing building in Flagler Station, where nearly 70% of which house Crowley’s main regional office and distribution center, required finding alternative space for tenant Makita Corp. whose lease at the Flagler Station building was not set to expire until 2019.
PriceSmart Inc., for which the Transwestern industrial team completed a $45.56-million industrial built-to-suit acquisition in Flagler Station in 2017, controlled the only available space in the landlord’s portfolio that could accommodate Makita. The Transwestern team facilitated the termination of PriceSmart’s vacant 56,344-square-foot lease, allowing the tenant to relocate within the park and Crowley to fully occupy the 179,672-square-foot building while gaining significant outside storage.
“Most of Miami’s industrial submarkets boast vacancy in the low single digits, including Doral at 4.1%,” Byrd says. “With county-wide vacancies continuing to decline, we were able to attract active interest from corporations seeking a foothold in a key submarket and sublease Crowley’s available space at International Corporate Park.”