Alabama firm buys Fort Myers industrial asset

An affiliate of a self-storage company has purchased a vacant Fort Myers warehouse once leased to Sears, Roebuck & Co. and FedEx in the largest industrial transaction thus far in 2018 in Lee County.

MSSP Spacebox Fort Myers LLC, an affiliate of Hattiesburg, Miss.-based Spacebox USA, acquired the 92,164-square-foot property in June for $6.4 million, according to Lee County property records.

It is expected that MSSP Spacebox will add additional space onto the 10.3-acre site, at 2670 Colonial Blvd., and convert the property into a self-storage facility.

Constructed in 1974, the building has been vacant for much of the past year, following tenant FedEx’s departure for a 250,000-square-foot build-to-suit elsewhere in Lee County. FedEx had occupied the property for roughly a decade.

Seller Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp., an affiliate of New Jersey-based UMH Properties, was represented in the transaction by Lee & Associates | Naples-Fort Myers’ Bob Johnston, Jerry Messonnier and Derek Bornhorst.

Tom Woodyard of Woodyard & Associates negotiated on behalf of MSSP Spacebox.

“To replace the building would have cost every bit of the amount that they paid, and that would be for the building only,” Johnston says. “And the Colonial Boulevard corridor is really growing in terms of residential, so a self-storage project should do well in that location, if that’s the route they take.”