Office Developer Going Industrial After Spotting Demand by 5,000-sf Users

WEST PALM BEACH, FL-Office developer Rusty Mackey is changing jerseys and entering the industrial development arena with two planned projects here and at Coconut Creek FL in nearby Broward County. But he’s hired a pro to do the leg work–Peter Odorico, formerly of Trammell Crow Co.

Odorico will oversee the development of West Palm Commerce Park, a planned 491,000-sf, 67-acre venture south of 45th Street on Haverhill Road here, about 60 miles north of Downtown Miami. The second undertaking will be a 255,000-sf complex of office and warehouse product on a 20-acre tract east of State Road 7 and north of the Sawgrass Expressway in Coconut Creek.

Lack of industrial-zoned land in the West Palm Beach market and demand by users for smaller space up to 5,000-sf prompted Mackey to plan the projects. He paid $2 million or $29,851 per acre (67 cents per sf) for the 67-acre tract. The second parcel of dirt, however, was a little pricier. Mackey paid $2.8 million or $140,000 per acre ($3.21 per sf) for the 20-acre pad.

Mackey’s office development reputation was made in the 1990s during the depressed building-price period. He and Ohio-based partner Walter Krumm accumulated one million sf of office product and sold the bulk of the holdings in 1998 to Apollo Real Estate Advisors of New York. Apollo then sold the assets for an undisclosed price to Apollo-backed Crocker Realty Trust of Boca Raton.