Prolific industrial builder Bridge Development Partners LLC and a joint venture partner bought most of the mammoth AVE Aviation and Commerce Center near Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport for $126 million.

Chicago-based Bridge and BentallGreenOak, a Toronto, Ontario-based real estate investment manager, combined to buy 123 acres Wednesday at the 178-acre commerce center by taking over the land lease from AVE Aviation and Commerce Center Inc.

The AVE commerce park is west of the airport and northeast of the Gratigny Parkway and Red Road at 14350 NW 56th Court. It's north of Hialeah and west of Opa-locka.

Developer Ernesto Cambo, formerly of Miami-based Alliance Cos., formed CPF Investment Group LLC to developed the industrial. State Division of Corporations records list Cambo as president of AVE Aviation and Commerce Center and an executive at CPF Investment.

The developed portion of the master-planned industrial-business park on land owned by Miami-Dade County is fully leased. AVE is approved for 2.6 million square feet of space total.

Bridge's and BentallGreenOak's chunk includes already built-out space plus 47 vacant acres where they can build up to 1 million square feet. The site is entitled for industrial and aviation uses.

The rest of their acquisition comprises 948,000 square feet of completed industrial space including a 478,000-square-foot U.S. Postal Service mail-sorting facility and three buildings totaling 470,000 square feet. There also is a 15-acre lot leased to used car dealer and wholesaler Off Lease Only.

AVE will continue to lease 41 vacant acres, including sites for a Marriott Fairfield Inn & Suites hotel and aerospace company Banyan Air Services.

AVE has over 30 existing tenants, including aircraft rental service Turbopower LLC, dietary supplements company Herbalife and Rolls-Royce.

The property around the airport has been a real estate hotbed. Amazon opened a 855,000-square-foot mega warehouse in June on the east side of the airport in an area with easy access to the Gratigny and Palmetto expressways, Interstate 75 and Florida's Turnpike.

The acquisition shows Bridge, one of the most active industrial developers in South Florida, isn't slowing down.

It's planning the two-building Bridge Point 595 industrial park in Davie on 34 acres purchased in July. In May, Bridge sold its new 221,815-square-foot Bridge Point Riverbend west of Interstate 95 in Fort Lauderdale for $38 million.

Bridge also is developing the 1.1 million square foot Bridge Point Commerce Center on 185 acres southwest of Florida's Turnpike Extension and Northwest 47th Avenue in Miami Gardens for delivery in the second quarter. A fourth building will bring the total size to 2.1 million square feet.

Industrial is one of South Florida's strongest market sectors driven by high demand for space and supply that can't keep up because open land in strategic locations near airports and seaports is scarce.

In Miami-Dade, nearly 38 million square feet of industrial space was absorbed in the last five years, much more than the 23 million square feet of newly completed space, according to CBRE Group Inc.

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