An aerial view of part of the Miramar industrial portfolio bought by San Francisco-based investment firm Stockbridge. Courtesy photo

Stockbridge Capital Group bought a Miramar industrial portfolio for $116.5 million, highlighting the healthy appetite among institutional investors for industrial properties in the robust South Florida market.

San Francisco-based Stockbridge closed Friday on the five-building, fully leased portfolio  from preeminent industrial developer IDI Logistics, which shared portfolio ownership with institutional investors.

The portfolio along Miramar Parkway east and west of Interstate 75 measures 607,223 square feet, which breaks down to $192 per square foot.

Stockbridge is an investment management company with $14.4 billion of assets under management. Its South Florida holdings include the 20-story 110 East Broward office tower in downtown Fort Lauderdale purchased last year and the seven-story Mason Building retail property in Miami’s Design District purchased in 2017.

Stockbridge this year turned to industrial real estate, perhaps the region’s strongest market, buying Deerfield Beach’s Powerline Business Park for $62.25 million. The 26.4-acre industrial park on Powerline Road comprises 24 small-bay buildings.

The 22-acre Miramar portfolio comprises three buildings at 11600, 11650 and 11740 Miramar Parkway from Florida’s Turnpike north to Miramar Parkway and from Red Road west to Flamingo Road. The other two buildings, 15701 SW 29th St. and 2501 160th Ave., are farther west on the northwest corner of I-75 and Miramar Parkway.

Broward County property records list the building at 11600 Miramar is 186,011 square feet; 11650 Miramar at 62,008 square feet; 11740 Miramar at 40,896 square feet; the 29th Street building at 263,057 square feet; and the 160th Avenue building at 55,574 square feet.

This adds up to 607,546 square feet, slightly more than the 607,223 square footage listed in a news release about the transaction. The difference might cover spaces like outdoor loading areas or other areas not under air conditioning.

The buildings, all built in the 2000s, are top-of-the-line industrial real estate with ample dock loading space, ceiling heights ranging from 18 to 32 feet, and truck courts ranging from 75 to 190 feet deep.

Demand for industrial space is strong in part because of e-commerce growth, but the supply can’t keep up because there’s not enough industrial land available for new construction.

In the past five years, nearly 37 million square feet of industrial space in South Florida was absorbed, much more than the 22.3 million square feet built, according to real estate firm CBRE Group Inc., which closed the Miramar portfolio sale.

This trend is more pronounced in Broward County where 15.6 million square feet was absorbed — more than double the 7 million square feet of new construction.

CBRE Capital Markets vice chairman Chris Riley in Atlanta as well as vice chairman Christian Lee and executive vice president José Lobón, both in Miami, closed the deal on behalf of the sellers.

First vice president Amy Julian, who is with CBRE’s debt and structured finance team, and financial analyst Royce Rose, both in Miami, also worked with industrial leasing senior vice president Larry Dinner in Fort Lauderdale on the transaction.

The institutional investors who sold the portfolio along with IDI Logistics were advised by  J.P. Morgan Asset Management, part of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Related stories: 

San Francisco Investor Beats Competition to Buy Powerline Business Park

South Florida Sees Surge of Institutional, REIT Industrial Investment