Banah Moves HQs to Hialeah, Signs Top Lease

By Georgiana Mihaila, Associate Editor

Terreno Realty Corp. landed what is considered to be one of 2011’s biggest leases by signing a deal with sugar producer Banah International for 300,000 square feet of space. The South Florida Business Journal reports that the 11-year lease for the Hialeah facility set at 215 SE 10^th Ave. is valued somewhere between $15 million and $20 million.

Banah, currently headquartered at 2100 Coral Way in Miami, recently completed its warehouse expansion in Doral—from 10,000 square feet to 32,000 square feet—and plans to expand its operations and hire an additional 292 people within the next three years. The sugar company has also considered Alabama, Texas and the Dominican Republic for its corporate headquarters; it eventually had its mind set on the 124,000-square-foot Airport West Distribution Center #1, at 3325 Northwest 70^th Avenue. But the company finally decided for the Hialeah facility due to the site’s direct rail connection and its size, which would allow Banah to house sister companies in the same facility.

In November, Banah began supplying Wal-Mart stores with sugar and now plans on adding a new product; the company was approved for incentives totaling $430,700, through the state’s Qualified Target Industry program.

According to the Business Journal, Jose Juncadella, managing principal of Fairchild Partners, represented Terreno Realty, and Ernesto Casal, principal of the Casal Group (formerly Capital Commercial Group), represented Banah International in the transaction.

This lease is not the sole major Miami deal signed by Terrano in the last month, as the acquirer, owner and operator of industrial real estate recently signed a lease with a Miami-based logistics company for 166,000 square feet at its industrial building in Miami Lakes; the deal, which brought occupancy of the building up to 94 percent, also included an expansion option exercisable within 13 months for an additional 24,000 square feet.