Investor Makes Second South Florida Industrial Play for 2020

Cushman & Wakefield represented the buyer paying $22 million for a Deerfield Beach distribution center.

from left, Cushman & Wakefield executive directors Richard Etner Jr. and Chris Metzger in Boca Raton. Christopher Thomson in West Palm Beach, and director Matthew G. McAllister in Boca Raton.

A real estate investor made its second South Florida industrial play in as many months, purchasing a Deerfield Beach property for $22 million.

An affiliate of Elion Partners bought a 158,000-square-foot, last-mile distribution center from an affiliate of nutritional supplements maker Rexall Sundown Inc. Bohemia, New York-based Rexall owned and occupied the building but has vacated it.

Elion was represented by a Cushman & Wakefield team and retained the brokerage to lease the building.

Cushman executive directors Richard Etner Jr. and Chris Metzger in Boca Raton, Christopher Thomson in West Palm Beach and director Christopher Thomson in Boca Raton worked on the purchase. They closed the deal Feb. 12.

This purchase came a month after Elion bought a three-building industrial complex in Boynton Beach for $25.85 million. Elion bought the 202,397-square-foot campus at 1200, 1210 and 1220 SW 35th Ave. from an affiliate of Philadelphia-based real estate investment manager Exeter Property Group.

The Deerfield Beach purchase breaks down to $139 per square foot, and the Boynton Beach deal went through at more than the $128 per square foot.

The South Florida industrial market is one of the strongest nationally, fueled by e-commerce growth. Industrial real estate is commanding high rents thanks to a tip in the supply-demand balance. The constrained supply is a result of a scarcity of land that’s both large enough and well-located for an industrial facility.

Elion, with offices in North Miami Beach and New York, manages more than $1.5 billion in real estate assets nationally, including industrial properties in South Florida, Chicago and Washington, according to its website.

The Deerfield Beach building is southeast of Southwest 10th Street and Powerline Road at 1111 SW 30th Ave. about 1.5 miles from Interstate 95.