Berger Commercial Realty Corp. Senior Vice President Joseph Byrnes, left, and John Forman, right, a sales associate who worked on the transaction, in Fort Lauderdale. Courtesy photos. Berger Commercial Realty Corp. senior vice president Joseph Byrnes, left, and John Forman, right, a sales associate who worked on the transaction, in Fort Lauderdale. Courtesy photos.

The Forman family, one of Broward County's pioneer families who ventured from dairy farming to real estate, politics and education, is once again directing the future course of a prime piece of land.

The Formans sold 34 acres in Davie for a major new industrial complex, and family member John Forman worked as a dealmaker on the transaction.

Forman Industrial Land LLC, one of the family holdings, sold the land southwest of Interstate 595 and Florida's Turnpike to Bridge Development Partners LLC for $36.9 million, or just over $1 million per acre. The deal closed July 10.

Berger Commercial Realty Corp. senior vice president Joseph Byrnes and Forman, a sales associate, closed the deal for the family.

Berger Commercial is a Fort Lauderdale-based brokerage, part of the CORFAC International network of independent commercial real estate brokerages.

Chicago-based Bridge Development is a prolific industrial developer betting big on the strength of South Florida with the construction of several complexes in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Its three-building, 677,314-square-foot Bridge Point 595 will rise on the Formans' acreage at 5600 Reese Road. The two-building complex, totaling 387,000 square feet, is set to open in the third quarter of 2020.

John Forman's great-grandparents ran the Bridge Point 595 site as a dairy farm shortly after buying it in the 1900s.

The self-made family patriarch, the late Hamilton Forman, was born on the family's dairy in 1919 and went on to venture into real estate and become an influential figure in politics whose support and financial backing was coveted by candidates.

The Formans in the 1950s sold the 34-acre tract to a road builder who dug rock pits, John Forman said.

“In the mid-1980s, my uncle, Austin Forman, had the idea for our family to buy back the pits from the road builder, who had become a close family friend, and conceived a plan to fill them for development,” Forman said. “I recall taking boat rides on the pit and looking for alligators long before the property was filled.”

The family filled over 150 acres of its land, and this is the latest site to sell.

“You might say,” Forman said, “that this has been a long time in coming.”

Forman, along with Berger Commercial's Byrnes and Keith Graves, both senior vice presidents, will lease Bridge Point 595 to tenants.

Related stories: 

Prolific Industrial Builder Bridge Development Plans New Facility in Davie

Fort Lauderdale's Bridge Point Riverbend Industrial Center Sells for $38 Million