GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Charleston Firm Plans 598,000-SF Spec Warehouse

DEERFIELD BEACH, FL-Officials at Greystar, the Charleston SC-based development and management company, are optimistic about the pending acquisition of a local commercial nursery, even though the property owners experienced a temporary delay in amending a 39-acre plat. The price was not disclosed.

Broward county commissioners have twice deferred a vote on the project. A rehearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

“Negotiations are proceeding in a favorable manner,” Greystar partner Pryce Elam tells GlobeSt.com. “We have the property under contract, with closing predicated on getting the plat approved.

Greystar plans to build 598,000 sf of spec bulk industrial product in five buildings over two phases. The first phase will consist of three buildings containing about 350,000 sf, with bay depths ranging from 150 to 200 feet.

“The buildings will be sized for intermediate distribution tenants,” Elam tells GlobeSt.com. “That generally will set us up for tenant sizes from 12,000 sf to 15,000 sf and up.” Rents will range from $5.75 per sf to $7.75 per sf triple net.

“From a timing perspective, we expect to close on the property right after the plat is approved,” Elam says. “Then permitting will take about six months. We should break ground in June of next year and deliver the first buildings by yearend next year.”

Greystone expects county commissioners to approve the plat amendment this week, clearing the way for a closing within the next 30 to 60 days, the developer tells GlobeSt.com.

“This deal is by no means dead and is just about to get started,” says Elam, commenting about a recent GlobeSt.com article that reported on a Broward County Commission decision to defer approval of the plat. “The county and city actually have been great to work with on it.”

The pending sale comes as the locally based Kraft family decided to sell the site of a commercial nursery founded in 1947.

“Kraft was quietly marketing the property,” says Elam. “A broker at Grubb & Ellis, Alan West, brought the site to us, and we jumped all over it. From literally the time I found out about it to the time we had a letter of intent, it was about a week.”

The property’s value is as an infill redevelopment site. “It’s difficult to find land in South Florida, but to find land with good access to major transportation arteries is a tremendous win,” Elam says. “If those arteries lead to Interstate 95, the Sawgrass Expressway and (Florida’s) Turnpike, like this property, then it’s a home run.”