MDH Partners Acquires Fully Leased Sawgrass Distribution Center in Broward County; JLL Represents Seller Clarion Partners

MIAMI — MDH Partners has acquired Sawgrass Distribution Center, a fully leased, 131,800-square-foot multi-tenant industrial property in Sunrise, Florida, JLL Capital Markets announced July 29. JLL represented the seller, Clarion Partners, in the transaction, which drew what the brokerage described as an extraordinary level of investor competition. The sale price was not disclosed.

The property is located at 770 International Parkway within the Sunrise International Corporate Park in western Broward County, one of South Florida's most supply-constrained industrial submarkets.

Property Details and Configuration

Built in 1989 and renovated in 2020, Sawgrass Distribution Center features seven rear-load bays with an average suite size of approximately 16,475 square feet. The facility offers 24-foot clear heights, 19 dock-high doors, two drive-in doors and two grade-level doors across a 100-foot truck court. Approximately 85% of the building's warehouse space is climate controlled, a specification that supports tenant operations in distribution, health care, construction and manufacturing sectors.

The property was fully leased at the time of sale, providing the buyer with immediate stabilized cash flow from a diversified tenant base.

Location and Logistics Infrastructure

Sawgrass Distribution Center sits five minutes from the Sawgrass Expressway and Interstate 595, with immediate access to Florida's Turnpike and Interstate 95. The facility is also in proximity to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades, positioning it within a key logistics corridor serving Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. The property's 90-minute drive-time population exceeds 6.5 million residents across the tri-county South Florida region.

The JLL Capital Markets team was led by Senior Managing Director Luis Castillo, Managing Director Cody Brais and Associate Taylor Osborne.

"The extraordinary level of competition for this asset speaks to the scarcity of well-located industrial properties in Southwest Broward," Brais said. "Investors recognized the rare combination of stable cash flow from creditworthy tenants, superior connectivity to South Florida's 6.5 million population base within a 90 minutes' drive and meaningful embedded upside through lease renewals in a market where development remains severely constrained."

Buyer and Seller Profiles

MDH Partners is an Atlanta-based real estate investment company that manages discretionary funds targeting industrial real estate across the United States on behalf of institutional investors. Founded in 2005 as the successor to a fifty-year-old local real estate development company, MDH Partners has led and/or participated in more than $8 billion — representing approximately 100 million square feet — of acquisitions, developments and asset management as an advisor and investor. The Sawgrass acquisition follows MDH's recent purchase of a $67.7 million Class A industrial complex in Lakeland, Florida, also brokered by JLL Capital Markets.

Clarion Partners is a New York-headquartered real estate investment manager with more than $73 billion in total real estate and debt assets under management. The firm manages a portfolio of approximately 1,000 industrial properties in the United States and Europe totaling more than 250 million square feet. Clarion Partners operates as an independently managed specialist investment manager within Franklin Templeton.

Market Context: Supply Constraints Drive Investor Demand

The competitive bidding process for Sawgrass Distribution Center reflects broader dynamics in South Florida's industrial market. Land scarcity, high construction costs and competition from residential and mixed-use development have severely constrained new industrial supply in infill Broward and Miami-Dade submarkets. Vacancies in port-proximate, population-dense markets such as South Florida remain among the lowest nationally, and logistics rent growth, while moderating from 2021–2023 peaks, continues to run above long-term averages in coastal and gateway markets.

The building's climate-controlled configuration and suite sizes cater to specialized, higher-value tenants — a profile that typically supports above-average rents per square foot and longer occupancy durations compared with generic bulk warehouse space. For investors, the combination of stabilized income and the potential to mark rents to market upon lease renewals in a supply-constrained environment has made assets like Sawgrass Distribution Center highly sought after.

JLL Capital Markets operates as a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers, with more than 3,000 specialists in offices across nearly 50 countries. The group's services include investment sales and advisory, debt advisory, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, loan sales, equity and fund placement, net lease, derivative advisory and energy and infrastructure advisory.

Sources

JLL Newsroom: JLL Secures the Sale of Sawgrass Distribution Center