Massive Ocala warehouse, built speculatively and leased to Amazon, has sold for red-hot price
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jul 7, 2020

Developers who broke ground speculatively on an Ocala warehouse and struck a deal with Amazon.com during construction have sold the property for $58.4 million.

The 617,055-square-foot Florida Crossroads Logistics Center, located directly north of Chewy.com's Ocala fulfillment center, has been sold to New York-based Lexington Realty Trust. Lexington is a publicly traded real estate investment trust focused on warehouse properties.

Amazon's lease at the warehouse went public in March and was confirmed in June, reports Ocala.com.

Colliers International Orlando represented Amazon and the developer in the lease transaction.

Cushman & Wakefield Inc. announced the sale on Tuesday. Cushman brokers Mike Davis, Stewart Calhoun, Rick Brugge, Rick Colon and Casey Masters represented the seller, a joint venture of Red Rock Developments and Wharton Industrial, in the transaction.

The sale closed just before the July Fourth holiday, Davis said.

The deal is similar in size and nature to the 2018 sale of CenterState Logistics Center, a 605,412-square-foot warehouse in Lakeland that sold for $59.6 million. That building also broke ground speculatively.

The developers began construction on the Ocala warehouse speculatively in 2018, without a tenant in place. The project, from its speculative beginning to landing a marquee tenant like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) to its sale price — which some in industrial real estate say is a record for Ocala on a price-per-square-foot basis — is a major endorsement of the Ocala warehouse market and is likely to spur more big deals there. Florida's industrial property experts predict a continued demand for warehouse space as the novel coronavirus pandemic and social distancing guidelines drive e-commerce sales to unprecedented levels.

"I’m aware of quite a few requirements floating [companies scouting for space] around Central Florida in general, and many of them will consider Ocala," Davis, vice chairman at Cushman (NYSE: CWK), told the Tampa Bay Business Journal. "Not all, but many. The Lakeland Interstate 4 corridor is still the preferred location for four out of five users."

But with its proximity to Interstate 75 and a "robust" labor force, Ocala is beginning to attract major users as well, Davis said, which drives interest from investors — as evidenced by the sale to Lexington.

In fact, Lexington chased the property so aggressively that there was no bid day, Davis said, which his team would typically host for such a property.

"We had over 100 registrations, but Lexington came in preemptively and offered a number that ownership was pleased with," Davis said, "and there were some light negotiations, but ultimately they came to terms and effectively sold it off market."