Fort Myers industrial park sells for $155 million

Naples/Fort Myers/Charlotte 

Record numbers: A Chicago real estate investment firm has bought Tri-County 75, a Fort Myers industrial park. According to Lee County records, the firm, Walton Capital, paid $155 million for the 818,000-square-foot park at Luckett Road and Interstate 75. The seller is a venture between Glenstar Logistics and Columnar Investments, which completed the project a year ago. The park sits on 72 acres and is made up of four warehouse buildings — the smallest is 76,210 square feet and the largest is 404,050 square feet. The property is currently 95% occupied with a tenant mix that includes Ferguson Enterprises, Mechanical One and NB Handy. Walton, according to its profile on LinkedIn, has raised nearly $17 billion in capital and “has acquired, financed, managed, and sold more than $55 billion of real estate” since 1994. CBRE arranged the sale. Details of the industrial park’s sale followed news earlier in the week of a $620 million land purchase of 1,986-acrees in Lee by North Carolina building supply company Martin Marietta. 

Health challenge: Swedish construction company Skanska’s U.S. division has landed the contract to build a $435 million medical building and hospital in Fort Myers for Lee Health. A spokesperson for Skanska USA says it will be built at 4453 Challenger Blvd. The contract calls for the construction of a 416,000-square-foot, five story hospital, a central energy plant and an 125,000-square-foot medical office building which includes an ambulatory surgery center. Skanska, in a statement, says the project will include over a dozen operating rooms, a rehabilitation gymnasium and specialty clinics for orthopedics, spine, rheumatology care and infectious. Utility work has begun on the site and the project is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2027. Skanska USA was founded in 1971 and employs more than 7,300 people. It has more than 30 offices in the U.S., including Tampa, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.

Tampa/St. Petersburg/ Pasco/Polk

Medical expansion: The Soule Co., a manufacturer and distributor of disposable and reusable patient positioning products, is expanding in Pasco County. The woman-owned manufacturer, with products that, according to its website, "reduce pressure management injuries such as pressure sores," is in the process of moving into a 127,280-square-foot space at the North Tampa Bay 75 business center. According to the Pasco Economic Development Council, it will hire 10 people and invest $400,000 in new racking systems and a facility buildout. The expansion is meant to help Soule increase production to meet increased demand. With the new facility, the company will now operate out of three locations in the county. The 85-acre North Tampa Bay 75, when complete, will be able to accommodate up to 850,000 square feet of space in four buildings. Soule is moving into the 187,000-square-foot building one. The other 59,180 square feet is being leased by an HVAC company that Pasco EDC has not announced yet. The center’s developer, Rooker, will spend $2 million on improvements in the building for the two tenants.

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And we’re off: The inaugural piece of the massive and ambitious Gasworx development in Tampa is open. The new 317-unit La Union Residence & Social Hall officially opened Nov. 2 with a ceremonial ribbon cutting. La Union is a multifamily community that includes a two-story fitness center, retail space and co-working studios. While officials showed up to cut a ribbon, preleasing has started and residents have begun moving in. The significance of the community’s opening is that it is the first of many projects that will make up Gasworx, the 50-acre redevelopment in and around Tampa’s historic Ybor City neighborhood and just outside downtown. When complete, it will include 5,000 new residences as well as 500,000 square feet of office space and more than 140,000 square feet of retail. Construction has already begun on a second multifamily development next to La Union. That 390-unit community is expected to be completed in early 2026. 

Sarasota/Manatee

A place to stay: A two-acre plot at the Mirasol Town Center in Nokomis has sold. The buyer is Echo Suites Hotel which paid $2.01 million for the property at 305 and 309 Serano Way. The hotel, which is an extended stay flag from Wyndham, will have 110 rooms. The permitting process is nearly done and construction is expected to begin next summer, according to Loyd Robbins & Co., the commercial real estate firm that brokered the deal. Mirasol is a 50-acre mixed-use development at Laurel and Knights Trail Roads near Interstate 75. The center has been coming together over the past several years and has a tenant mix that will include 7-Eleven, Wendy’s, Dunkin, RJ Tires, Atlas Senior Living Facility, the Revello apartments and Wasserman Vlitsky Dermatology.

Merchants in Venice: MLG Capital, a Wisconsin real estate investment firm, has bought The Venetian at Capri Isles apartment community in Venice. The firm did not disclose the purchase price and as of Nov. 1 Sarasota County records had not been updated. The previous owners, a group of LLCs, paid $11.5 million for the community in 2022. MLG bought the 180-unit The Venetian at Capri Isles through its Legacy fund, which, it says, offers a tax-deferred exit strategy for private real estate owners. While it didn’t disclose details of the transaction, MLG says it plans to make capital improvements to the property, including to the interiors and exteriors of units and upgrading amenities in an effort “to enhance the asset’s desirability.” The community’s units range in size from a one bedroom at 725 square feet to a two bedroom at 1,177 square feet. The Venetian at Capri Isles website does not disclose monthly rents. MLG, which has an office in Sarasota, owns 41,640 units totaling 47.6 million square feet, according to its website. In Florida, it owns 4,555 units totaling 4.9 million square feet. The buy, according to a statement, is the Legacy Fund’s 24th in Florida and brings its assets to $1.4 billion.

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