One of Central Florida's most active developers sells Polk warehouses in nine-figure portfolio deal
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 28, 2020

One of Central Florida's most bullish developers has closed a deal that it says is the largest industrial portfolio sale in the Southeast this year.

A partnership of McCraney Property Co., based in West Palm Beach, and Northwestern Mutual said Wednesday that it has sold six warehouses in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina totaling 3.5 million square feet to Nuveen Global Investments for $272 million. Nuveen is owned by pension fund TIAA Investments.

is behind some of the Tampa Bay region's largest speculative warehouse developments, which were sold to Nuveen. The deal is a ringing endorsement of the industrial real estate market along the Interstate 4 corridor, which has been attractive to investors and developers for several years. But the novel coronavirus pandemic has brought more attention to the area, as shoppers shift even more of their spending to online ordering — drawing the attention of an institutional investor like Nuveen.

Three of the properties in the portfolio are along the I-4 corridor. The portfolio includes the following Florida properties:

County Line Logistics Center, Plant City: 1,104,933 square feet

Park 27, Davenport: 602,972 square feet

27 Logistics Park, Davenport: 207,676 square feet

I-4 Commerce Center, Lake Mary: 45,340 square feet

The portfolio also includes a 611,968-square-foot warehouse in Buford, Georgia, and a 350,687-square-foot warehouse in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“We brought the portfolio to market at a time when industrial properties are receiving much attention, fueled by the e-commerce uptick due to the pandemic,” Steven McCraney, president and CEO of McCraney Property Co., said in a statement. “With only escalation in value on the forefront and little risk to any buyer, the pent-up industrial real estate industry was ready for a huge opportunity with this portfolio.”

Chris Riley, Frank Fallon and Trey Embrey of CBRE Group Inc. represented the sellers in the transaction.