- A warehouse is priced on the building and the income it supports, which is the opposite of how a yard is priced.
- Clear height, loading, power and column spacing decide who can use the building, and therefore who can bid on it.
- The land around the building is frequently worth more than owners realise, and only if the code permits outdoor storage on it.
- The buyer pool changes materially between South Florida, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville, and the marketing has to change with it.
- A long flat lease below market caps the buyer's upside and gets priced as an annuity rather than as a building.
What a warehouse buyer is paying for
Two buildings of identical square footage on the same road can be worth very different amounts, and none of the reasons are visible in the square footage.
- Clear height. The single biggest divider. A building a tenant can rack to modern heights competes for tenants that a low clear building never sees.
- Loading. Dock high doors against grade level, how many, and whether the truck court is deep enough for a 53 foot trailer to set up and back in.
- Power. Service size and whether it supports manufacturing, cold storage or heavy equipment rather than only lights and offices.
- Column spacing and bay depth. What can actually be laid out inside, and whether racking fits without wasting aisles.
- Sprinkler type. What the system permits a tenant to store, which quietly rules whole categories of tenant in or out.
- Office finish ratio. How much of the building is finished office, and whether that matches what the market wants or what a previous owner wanted.
Everything on that list narrows or widens the pool of businesses that can use the building. The size of that pool is the price.
The yard question most owners never ask
This is where warehouse owners most often leave money behind, and it takes one phone call to the city to answer.
If your building sits on land with more area than the parking requirement consumes, that surplus may be worth pricing separately. What decides it is whether the municipal code permits outdoor storage of vehicles, trailers, containers or equipment on that part of the site, and whether it is permitted by right, available only by special exception, or protected as a documented legal nonconforming use.
Where it is permitted, a fenced usable yard is income, and there are buyers who want the yard more than the building. Where it is not, it is a maintenance line item. Owners routinely market the second when they own the first.
How the buyer pool changes across Florida
The steps do not change between Miami and Jacksonville. The bidders do, and so does what your building is compared against.
Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach
Land constrained, with older stock competing against very little new supply and a deep owner user base. Municipal codes vary sharply between neighbouring cities, which is why the zoning answer has to come from the city rather than the county. The Fort Lauderdale specifics have their own guide.
Tampa Bay
A market where new distribution product is still being delivered on the Plant City and Polk edge, so older buildings are compared against modern alternatives more directly than they are in South Florida.
Central Florida
Orlando, Kissimmee, Sanford and the Polk County corridor. Distribution driven by the I-4 spine, with a buyer pool weighted toward users serving the whole peninsula from one point.
Northeast Florida
Jacksonville, port and interstate driven, with rail access mattering more here than it does further south. Industrial Storage Brokers has closed in this market.
Open your market page for what actually trades there, and read the Fort Lauderdale guide if your building is in Broward, because that one goes into the city by city code differences in detail.
The lease is part of the price
If the building is leased, a buyer is buying the lease as much as the bricks.
- Term and covenant. Who the tenant is, how long they have left, and whether their business supports the rent.
- Rent against market. A rent above market is worth capitalising. A rent below market is worth fixing, or worth pricing honestly as the drag it is.
- Structure. Gross, modified gross and triple net produce very different net income from the same headline rent, and the difference lands on the owner.
- Escalations and options. A renewal option at a fixed below market rent is a real reduction in value and it will be found.
Vacant is not automatically worse. An empty building sells to owner users, who are frequently the strongest bidders because they are solving a business problem rather than hitting a return.
Who is bidding
- Owner users. Companies buying to occupy. Often the highest number, because the building solves an operating problem for them.
- Private and family capital. The core investor pool through most of the Florida market.
- Exchange buyers. Deadline driven, paying for certainty and a clean file.
- Yard operators. Where the site has permitted usable land, a buyer may want the ground and treat the building as a bonus.
What to have ready
Have these in a folder
- 01Building specificationClear height, door counts and types, truck court depth, column spacing, electrical service, sprinkler system and roof age.
- 02Site plan and surveyShowing parking, any surplus land and the easements crossing it.
- 03The zoning readPermitted uses, and specifically whether outdoor storage is allowed on the land around the building.
- 04Leases and operating statementsWith amendments and options, and recoveries broken out.
- 05Capital historyRoof, paving, HVAC, electrical upgrades, with dates and warranties.
- 06Environmental historyPrior uses on the site, and any report already in hand.
When Phil is the wrong call
If the building is really office or retail with a roll-up door, the buyer pool is not an industrial one and you want a broker who sells to that pool.
If the property sits outside a real industrial submarket, with no port, interstate, intermodal or airport reach, there is no buyer pool to run a process against. He will say so on the first call rather than list it and let it sit.
He will also tell you to hold. A producing building with a good tenant and no capital need is often better kept, and you keep the number and the comps either way.
The process, in order
Seven steps, in the sequence they actually happen. Most of the value is created in the first three, before the property is ever shown.
How the sale runs
- 01Document the building properlyClear height, loading, truck court, power, column spacing, sprinkler and roof, measured rather than remembered.
- 02Get the zoning read, including the landConfirm permitted uses with the city, and specifically whether outdoor storage is allowed on any surplus area.
- 03Reconcile the leasesPull every lease with amendments and options, and separate what tenants genuinely reimburse from what they do not.
- 04Decide which buyer you are selling toOwner user, investor or yard operator, because the marketing and the pricing logic differ for each.
- 05Price it against real closingsComparable sales in that submarket over the last two years, adjusted for the specifications that actually differ.
- 06Run a real processTake it to all the pools at once rather than to one relationship, so the market sets the number instead of one buyer.
- 07Drive it to closingManage inspection, environmental, title and financing dates so nothing slips between letter of intent and closing.
Read next: IOS yards, Truck parking and terminals. If your building is in Broward, read the Fort Lauderdale guide next, which goes further into the city by city code differences.