GTJ REIT Acquires Fort Myers Hub Leased to Frito-Lay for $35M
Newly built distribution center sits near I-75 artery through South Florida.
By Andrew Coen January 8, 2025 11:34 am
reprints
GTJ REIT has acquired a newly built warehouse leased by Frito-Lay in Fort Myers, Fla., near Interstate 75 for $34.9 million, Commercial Observer has learned.
The non-traded real estate investment trust purchased the 104,000-square-foot industrial building from SunCap Property Group in a deal that closed Dec. 23. Green Holland Management’s Adan Elias Kornfeld brokered the transaction.
Gulf Shore Business first reported the sale, but had the wrong purchase price.
Located at 9111 Cheetos Circle, the property that will serve as a Frito-Lay distribution center was completed in the fourth quarter of 2024 and has direct access to the I-75 corridor that connects Tampa on Florida’s Gulf Coast to Miami on the Atlantic. Elias Kornfeld said the acquisition marks Garden City, N.Y.-based GTJ’s first Florida transaction, and that the industrial-focused REIT is eyeing more opportunities in the state.
Elias Kornfeld said part of the attraction for GTJ, in addition to having a national tenant like Frito-Lay, was the economic growth potential along the west coast of South Florida near the Gulf of Mexico, along with the site’s convenient highway link to Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
“The west coast of Florida has seen a tremendous influx of building and population growth, and it’s also from a living standpoint a little bit cheaper of a place to live than Fort Lauderdale or Miami,” Elias Kornfeld said. “It’s trending upwards.”
GTJ REIT did not immediately return a request for comment.
Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com
