Meridian sells Tampa industrial project

Meridian Development Group has sold a three-building industrial project in East Tampa for $8.25 million, the latest move by the Tampa-based investment firm to recalibrate its portfolio.

Boston-based High Street Realty Co. bought Meridian East, a 200,000-square-foot project at 5100 Causeway Blvd., in part because it is near its 955,000-square-foot Tampa Distribution Center. High Street acquired that six-building project two years ago for $43.4 million, records show.

“They were the logical buyer, given their holdings in the immediate area,” says Meridian Managing Director Steven Kossoff.

Meridian, too, was the 11-acre project's logical buyer in 2013, when the company paid $5 million for the site. At the time, it was two-thirds vacant. Meridian invested $600,000 to upgrade the property and hiked its occupancy up to 100% at the time of the High Street deal.

“We find projects that are largely vacant or have something wrong with them and fix them, lease them up and sell them,” Kossoff says. “This was in that category, for sure.”

Meridian East marks the latest in a string of dispositions. Late last year, the company sold its Meridian Distribution Center, in Sarasota, to a Canadian real estate investment trust and its Meridian Premier Center, in Tampa, to Worldwide Investments.

Kossoff says he hopes to boost Meridian's portfolio from 3 million square feet to 5 million square feet by 2022 through new investments.

To that end, last summer Meridian bought the Beaumont Business Center, also in Tampa, for $18.5 million. Renamed Meridian 589, the 252,000-square-foot office building is undergoing $2 million in renovations now. Kossoff says occupancy has jumped from 50% to 60% since Meridian's acquisition.