After 19 Months of Dealing, DHL Worldwide Signs $5 Mil Lease for 31,000 sf in West Broward

The international air express carrier is relocating its Latin America and Caribbean headquarters operations from offices in Fort Lauderdale, where the company failed to reach terms with its current property owner.

"DHL went through a presentation process to select a broker about two years ago," Mitchell Millowitz of Cushman & Wakefield of Florida Inc., who represented the company, tells GlobeSt.com. "This deal took a long time, a 19-month process."

The company originally wanted to stay in the city of Fort Lauderdale, but if they did, DHL staffers would be separated on three floors. "Then, during lease negotiations, the landlord…tried to renegotiate," Millowitz says. That's when DHL starting looking elsewhere.

The company selected space in a newly constructed, 100,000 sf building, one of three comparably sized structures in the park. With the new building already 90% occupied, the owners are in the process of developing a fourth. Unlike the company's existing property owner, DHL found a new owner willing to develop a unique contract, Millowitz says.

While he did not provide specifics, Millowitz says Crossroads Business Park is asking about $16 per sf, triple net. A recent Cushman & Wakefield research report shows that most class A office space in Broward County averages a total $24 per sf, when including electricity and other costs.

Besides Millowitz, Kim Liberty, a representative of the public-private economic development partnership Broward Alliance, assisted DHL with site selection work. Peter Sheridan of Premier Commercial Realty represented the property owner, Crossroads Business Park Associates, a group of local investors.