- A West Palm Beach mailing address does not mean the City of West Palm Beach sets your zoning. Much of the industrial land near the airport sits in unincorporated county.
- Price off Palm Beach County comparables. The county trades on its own numbers, and a Boca flex bay and a Riviera Beach terminal share little else.
- Clear your paperwork before a buyer asks for it.
- Choose off-market or open market on purpose.
- Expect a retrade attempt, and keep a second buyer warm until the deposit goes hard.
This guide is written for Palm Beach County. For Broward, read how to sell a warehouse in Fort Lauderdale. For the statewide process, start with how to sell a warehouse in Florida.
The seven steps
Work through these in order. Skipping to step four, with a number in your head and a sign on the building, is the most common way an owner loses money here.
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Get a real number
Palm Beach County runs from the Port of Palm Beach in Riviera Beach to the Park of Commerce in Jupiter, the flex parks of Boca Raton and the sugar country around Belle Glade. A yard off Skees Road and a flex bay in Delray Beach share a county and very little else.
A real number comes from closed industrial sales in your corridor, the rent your space would draw today, what your zoning allows, and who is buying this quarter. That data sits inside brokerages, not on the MLS.
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Clear the paperwork
Pull the survey, the title commitment, permits and the certificate of occupancy, environmental history, roof and structural records, tax bills, and every lease with every amendment.
Get zoning verification from the right government: the city if your parcel sits inside one, the county's zoning division if it does not. The next section explains why that question trips up so many sellers here.
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Decide off-market or open market
Off-market means a named list of buyers who already own this asset class, approached under NDA. Your tenants and competitors hear nothing. Open market means every buyer sees it, and you get the competition that comes with that.
A stabilised multi-tenant building often does better with wide exposure. An owner-occupied building, or one carrying a tenant problem, usually does better quietly.
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Price it, then market it
Set the price from the underwriting, then build the marketing around the buyer who will pay the most. An owner user wants possession and loading. A fund wants a rent roll and a covenant.
An asking price above the underwriting does not get you more. It gets you two months of silence and a building buyers now know has been sitting.
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Run the buyers against each other
Set a date for offers and compare the whole offer: the deposit and its hard date, the inspection period, any financing contingency, proof of funds, and what the buyer has closed before.
A short study period and a hard deposit at a fair price closes. A record price with a long exit is an option you hand the buyer for free.
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Survive due diligence
Assume a retrade attempt late in the inspection period, framed as a roof, an environmental finding or a lease question. Answer it with evidence and hold the deposit schedule you agreed.
Keep your second buyer informed until the money goes hard. A seller with a backup offer negotiates from a stronger seat.
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Close
Estoppels from every tenant, tax and rent prorations, the lender payoff, security deposit transfers, and the documentary stamp tax on the deed, which runs 70 cents per $100 of price in Palm Beach County. Your attorney runs the closing. The broker keeps surprises off the list.
What sets the price on a Palm Beach industrial building
Six things move the number more than anything else.
- Clear height. Modern tenants rack up, and older Palm Beach stock often sits low. Clear height decides who can use the building.
- Loading. Dock high and grade level doors, and room for a 53 foot trailer to turn. Truck court depth kills deals.
- Power. Manufacturers and cold users pay for amps.
- The yard. Paved, fenced outside area and a recorded right to store on it. Near the port and the Turnpike, yard is scarce.
- Position against the freight network. I-95, Florida's Turnpike, the Port of Palm Beach in Riviera Beach, Palm Beach International Airport, and the CSX and FEC rail lines. Last-mile users buy drive time to their customers.
- The lease. Remaining term, escalations, who pays taxes and insurance, and whether a lender will underwrite the tenant.
The county posted 55,000 square feet of positive net absorption that quarter, after a negative 145,000 in the first quarter. These are county figures for buildings. They describe a market, and they help you check the report a buyer sends to justify a low offer.
The address that is not the city
Palm Beach County has 39 municipalities, and each one writes its own zoning code. Land outside all of them falls under the county's Unified Land Development Code.
The trap is the mailing address. Industrial land along Skees Road, Belvedere Road and Haverhill Road near the airport often carries a West Palm Beach address while sitting in unincorporated county. The City of West Palm Beach code, with its M-1 light industrial and M-2 general industrial districts, does not govern those parcels. The county's code does, and the two treat outdoor storage differently.
Before you go to market, confirm which government controls your parcel and get the permitted use in writing. A buyer's attorney will ask, and a wrong answer at that stage costs you price.
Three mistakes that cost the most
- Trusting the mailing address. Sellers quote the city code to a buyer and find out in due diligence that the county governs. The buyer then reprices the yard.
- Renewing a lease before deciding to sell. A five year renewal at a below-market rent, signed weeks before going to market, can cost more than the brokerage fee.
- Letting the buyer set the timetable. An open inspection period with a refundable deposit hands the buyer a free option. Set deadlines and a hard date.
Who is buying industrial in Palm Beach County
Four pools, and your building probably fits one of them.
- Owner users. Contractors, marine trades, distributors and manufacturers buying their own premises, often with SBA financing.
- Private investors and 1031 buyers. Looking for stable income on a deadline. Small bay buildings in Lake Worth Beach, Royal Palm Beach and Boynton Beach draw them.
- Funds and institutional capital. Buying distribution product in the Jupiter Park of Commerce, Riviera Beach and along the Turnpike.
- Yard and truck operators. Buying ground near the port and the interchanges. On an older building with a big lot, they can outbid everyone.
What a valuation needs from you
Six things, all free to gather.
- The address and the parcel control number, so the governing code can be read off the county record.
- Building size and lot size, with usable yard separated from the total.
- Clear height, door counts by type, and the electrical service.
- The leases, with term, rent, escalations, options and who pays what.
- Roof age, paving, sprinkler and HVAC, and the permit history.
- Anything recorded against the property. Covenants surprise everyone late.
Phil concludes every valuation himself after he has seen the site. It costs nothing and carries no obligation to list.
Read next: What is my industrial property worth, then how to choose an industrial broker in South Florida.