The $126 million sale of most of a sprawling industrial complex next to Miami-Opa-locka Executive Airport — the second biggest industrial transaction in South Florida this year — was no easy deal.

"We literally had 46 contract amendments," said Wayne Schuchts, who closed the sale.

Bridge Development Partners LLC, a prolific industrial developer, in a joint venture with BentallGreenOak, a Toronto, Ontario-based real estate investment manager, bought 123 acres of the 178-acre AVE Aviation and Commerce Center.

The seller was AVE Aviation and Commerce Center Inc., led by developer Ernesto Cambo, an executive at CPF Investment Group LLC, which developed the AVE industrial park.

Schuchts, an Avison Young principal in Miami, closed the deal Oct. 16. He worked with both AVE and Bridge in the past, which he says helped him overcome the many deal challenges.

"I think because of the relationships that I had with the buyer and seller and that the buyer and seller developed between themselves, we were able to work through really significant deal challenges," Schuchts said.

He represented Cambo in securing a 478,000-square-foot U.S. Postal Service lease at AVE 12 years ago, the first lease at the industrial complex that Schuchts said kick-started the project.

More recently, Ernesto Casal of Casal Commercial Real Estate has been leasing AVE northeast of the Gratigny Parkway and Red Road at 14350 NW 56th Court.

Schuchts also worked before with Bridge's Southeast regional partner, Kevin Carroll.

The transaction was a land-lease reassignment on Miami-Dade County property, which posed one of the deal challenges.

"Land leases are very complicated, and not everybody will buy land leases," Schuchts said. "Bridge is very entrepreneurial, understands land leases, has done deals on airport land leases and saw it as a perfect fit."

The master-planned AVE is entitled for 2.6 million square feet of development. The tract Bridge and BentallGreenOak bought includes 948,000 square feet of developed, fully leased space and 47 vacant acres.

The leased space includes the USPS mail-sorting facility and three buildings totaling 470,000 square feet. Another 15 acres is leased to used car dealer and wholesaler Off Lease Only.

On the vacant land, Bridge plans to build four buildings ranging in size from 109,000 to 500,000 square feet for a total of 1 million square feet. Construction will start next year and is due for completion in 2021.

Bridge has no tenants lined up but is betting on tenant demand in a strong market. The South Florida industrial market is one of the nation's strongest, benefiting from healthy demand with limited buildable land near airports and seaports.

In Miami-Dade, nearly 38 million square feet of industrial space was absorbed in the last five years, much more than the 23 million square feet of new space, according to CBRE Group Inc.

West of Opa-locka and north of Hialeah, AVE has the advantage of proximity to the Gratigny Expressway, Palmetto Expressway and Interstate 75.

Bridge is targeting distribution and e-commerce tenants, Schuchts said.

He as well as Avison Young principal Tom Viscount in Fort Lauderdale and marketing coordinator Bobby Benton in Fort Lauderdale will exclusively lease Bridge's buildings.

Bridge, based in Chicago, also is developing the 1.1 million-square-foot Bridge Point Commerce Center on 185 acres southwest of Florida's Turnpike Extension and Northwest 47th Avenue in Miami Gardens for delivery in the second quarter. A fourth building will bring the total to 2.1 million square feet.

The company also is planning the two-building Bridge Point 595 industrial park in Davie on 34 acres purchased in July. In May, Bridge sold its new 221,815-square-foot Bridge Point Riverbend west of Interstate 95 in Fort Lauderdale for $38 million.

AVE is keeping 41 vacant acres, including sites for a Marriott Fairfield Inn & Suites hotel and aerospace company Banyan Air Services.

This transaction is the runner-up industrial deal so far this year, trailing behind the $178 million sale of Hialeah's Centergate at Gratigny in August. RREEF America, a subsidiary of DWS Investment Management Americas Inc., bought the 74-acre industrial complex from investment manager PGIM, a subsidiary of Prudential Financial Inc.

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