Spec Industrial Surge

Spec industrial development’s heated up this year, mostly in Miami-Dade. But now other South Florida markets are getting a piece of the action. (Sorry, Miami-Dade, you have to share.)

Demand is growing in the West Palm Turnpike corridor, McCraney Property Co CEO Steven McCraney says, as job growth and residential development strengthen. Not much has been developed there for years, and that dynamic has allowed McCraney to pull the trigger this week on a 100k SF warehouse/distribution project in its Vista Business Park project in West Palm Beach, the first for the park in five years. Snapped: Steven (in yellow) at the summit of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere at nearly 23k ft. (His goal is to climb the highest peaks on every continent.)

Initial interest from prospective tenants has been strong, Steven says. The project consists of two buildings on more than seven acres, featuring spaces from 10k SF to 100k SF. The buildings will have clear heights of 24' and depth of up to 130'. Edwards Construction Services is the GC, with financing provided by City National Bank.

While local demand is driving spec in places like West Palm Beach, international trade and major infrastructure projects are still driving Miami-Dade. This week, Chicago-based Bridge Development closed on 17 acres at NW 112th Avenue and 146th Street in Hialeah Gardens for the development of its 242k SF Bridge Point Crossroads West. The company is eager to build more industrial in South Florida, because the demand is rising for new product, principal Kevin Carroll tells us. (It's also probably been scarred by the winter and wants to be here to warm up.) This will be the third spec industrial building by Bridge in South Florida over the past 12 months; the other two are in Broward.