Butters Wins Capital for $100M Industrial Park

MIAMI—If you wondered how bullish investors and developers really are about Miami industrial real estate, look no further than the new $100 million industrial park planned for Miami-Dade County. Butters Construction & Development has been planning the project and just won financial backing to begin construction.

Airport North Industrial Park will offer four institutional-quality, single and multi-tenant industrial buildings. The project will include rear-load and cross-dock facilities ranging from 96,725 square feet to 322,840 square feet, and featuring building depths of 205 feet to 300 feet, 120-foot minimum truck courts, 30-foot clear height and Early Suppression, Fast Response (ESFR) fire sprinkler systems.

“Miami is quickly becoming one of the top industrial gateway cities in the United States and is considered, along with Southern California, as one the most desirable markets, where all the institutional real estate owners must have a presence,” says Malcolm Butters, CEO of Butters. “This site is strategically located near the Palmetto Expressway and Okeechobee Road, enabling phenomenal access to the rest of the county and beyond.”

The project is budgeted at an all-in development cost of $75 million, or $80 per square foot. Site development is about to get underway, and vertical construction is set to begin in the second quarter. Developers expect the project to generate about $3.5 million in fees for Miami-Dade County, hundreds of jobs, and Butters will build a $1 million new section of NW 80th Street.

Butters retained CBRE to procure an institutional equity partner to acquire the site and develop the park. CBRE identified L&B Realty Advisors, and their client, the State of Florida, as the equity partner for the deal. CBRE vice chairman Christian Lee and Chris Riley led the transaction for CBRE, assisted by vice chairman Charles Foschini, vice president Devin White, senior vice president David Albert, and associate Jose Lobon.

According to Lee, L&B Realty Advisors was the best fit for the deal from among a number of well-capitalized institutional suitors. Lee says: “L&B not only had the confidence that the demand for the product will be there once completed, but was also comfortable that Butters would be able to successfully complete the project on budget.”

With a 5.8% vacancy rate, Miami ranks sixth-lowest in the nation and has the highest occupancy of any market in the eastern United States, according to CBRE. Further, Miami market rents rose 12% from fourth quarter 2011 to fourth quarter 2012, during which time 2.5 million square feet of industrial space was absorbed.