Old school site to be logistics center
FORT LAUDERDALE – Amid an explosion in e-commerce and international trade traffic, a South Florida industrial park developer has acquired a 10.2-acre site from Broward County Public Schools to build a distribution center north of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
After leveling an empty elementary school building, Bridge Development Partners intends to build the 173,129-square-foot Bridge Point FLL Logistics Center.
The property changed hands for $5.65 million, according to public records. Formerly the site of Edgewood Elementary School, it has been vacant since 1996.
The deal comes amid a surge in online retail commerce and growing cargo traffic that passes through South Florida’s seaports and airports.
Founded in Chicago, Bridge Development is spearheading other industrial projects in Fort Lauderdale and elsewhere around South Florida. It maintains operations in Miami, New Jersey and Seattle, according to Kevin Carroll, the company’s Florida partner.
They include Bridge Point Riverbend, a 221,542-square-foot building at Interstate 95 and Broward Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale; Bridge Point Powerline Road, a Pompano Beach industrial park encompassing close to 470,000 square feet; and Bridge Point Commerce Center in Miami Gardens, the company’s largest project in the region that will cover 2.1 million square feet.
Carol said the company’s strategy is to identify older properties and repurpose them for industrial usage. The approach is critical in South Florida because of the limited amount of open land available for development.
He said the company is eager to take advantage of South Florida’s proximity to Latin America, and the wide range of import and export traffic that flows through Broward County’s Port Everglades and PortMiami in Miami-Dade County.
“The proximity to the port is a pretty exciting opportunity for us,” Carroll said. “You need to be near the ports to provide regional distribution. [Products] get warehoused and distributed regionally or put back on another container for points south” to Latin America.