In Record South Florida Deal, Equus Pays $240M for Industrial Complex
By Julia Echikson February 3, 2022 3:14 pm
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Equus Capital Partners dropped $239.2 million for warehouse complexes across Broward County, Fla., surpassing 2021’s largest industrial deal in South Florida.
The properties include 16 warehouses, spanning 23 acres in total. The majority of the warehouses are located in Pompano Beach along SW 5th and 6th Court as well as five miles away along NW 30th Place. Only three are in Fort Lauderdale.
Equus’ purchase approximates to $240 a square foot, according to property records.
The deal appears to be tied to Equus’ $900 million purchase of a 5.4 million-square-foot industrial portfolio across the Sun Belt and East Coast from warehouse giant Prologis (PLD) earlier this week.
Equus nabbed a combined $483 million in financing from Morgan Stanley (MS), according to property records. But it’s unclear whether the loans are tied to the Broward County purchase only or the portfolio acquisition since the actual mortgage documents are not publicly available.
Representatives for Propologis and Equus did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The sale is yet another sign of South Florida’s sizzling industrial market thanks to strong leasing demand. Net absorption rose to 10.3 million square feet in 2021, more than doubling the square feet absorbed the year prior, according to data compiled by Newmark. In the last quarter, the vacancy rate dropped by 0.4 percentage points to 3.4 percent, while asking rents grew by $0.39 to $10.14 a foot.
The complex ended up in Prologis’ hands also through a portfolio deal. In 2020, the San Francisco-based company paid $13 billion for Liberty Property Trust, the previous owner of the properties, which were completed in 1991.
The Broward County sale is not only the biggest South Florida industrial sale of 2022 so far in gross terms, but also tops 2021’s highest sale by $56 million, according to The Real Deal’s tally. In last year’s top industrial deal, CenterPoint bought a Hialeah park for $184 million.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
