Coca-Cola Florida owner pays $65M for Fort Myers warehouse

The industrial real estate market in Lee County received a jolt with Coca-Cola Florida’s parent company paying $65 million for Highland Commerce Center, a warehouse that’s bigger than eight football fields. 

CF RE VI LLC, a company owned by Houston-based Cardinal System Holdings LLC, which owns Coca-Cola Florida, bought the 481,933-square-foot warehouse at 16500 Oriole Road in mid-September for about $135 per square foot. 

The building, which has 96 dock doors, 138 trailer parking spaces and office space inside, has sat vacant since being completed in 2024. Property records show the previous owner, HCC Fort Myers LLC, paid $11.5 million for about 33.5 vacant acres in August 2022. 

Derek Bornhorst and Adam Bornhorst of CBRE brokered the deal, but they signed a nondisclosure agreement and were not able to comment. The seller, HSA Commercial Real Estate in Chicago, could not be reached for comment. 

Sara-Ashley Moreno, general counsel and director of operations at Cardinal System Holdings, said, “I’m not able to discuss at this time but appreciate the call.” 

Coca-Cola Florida currently uses a distribution center of about 61,000 square feet at 10051 Alico Road, which is 2.7 miles away and on the other side of Interstate 75 from the new building. The new warehouse is almost eight times the size of the current one. 

According to Coca-Cola Florida’s website, the Fort Myers distribution center delivers 6.7 million cases of products each year across the region. 

The industrial vacancy rate in Lee County recently eclipsed the 10% mark, said Matt Simmons, managing partner of Maxwell, Hendry & Simmons. It is about 10.1%, according to CoStar data. 

“If Highland Commerce Center is fully used, that alone will move the needle,” Simmons said before doing the math and finding the project would make a significant difference for the entire region. “If Highland Commerce Center was also just leased up by a single tenant, then our vacancy rate would drop to 9.6%. 

“That’s how significant that project is from the size standpoint.” 

Three years ago, industrial deals were hot across the region and going for between $170 and $190 per square foot, Simmons said. 

“This price is lower than the slew of industrial sales that we saw going back three years,” Simmons said. “There’s opportunity at the moment. You’re able to buy at prices that were completely out of reach in 2024.” 

Justin Thibaut, president and CEO of LSI Companies, wasn’t involved with the deal, but he noted the price per square foot was lower than what he would have expected upon the building’s completion. 

“It’s great to see this transact and absorb some vacancy in the Alico industrial submarket,” Thibaut said. “It’s yet another example of high-end industrial users seeking proximity to I-75 and easy access to the entire region. I wouldn’t expect to see many more transactions in this price per square foot range for new product, but this is a great buy for the user.” 

Of about 46 million square feet of industrial space in the region, about 3.2 million square feet remains vacant. 

“Why some of the concern about the vacancy rate?” Simmons said. “I think it’s a little overstated. A lot of our new product is just waiting to be absorbed. And you can’t absorb it overnight.”