In addition, an agreement was reached near the end of the year to sell Mizner Park, a mixed-use project consisting of 268,000 sf of office space, 237,000 sf of retail space and 272 multifamily residential units in Boca Raton, FL, for about $136.9 million. The Rouse Co., a publicly traded real estate development and management company based in Columbia, MD, and a client advised by New York-based ING Clarion agreed to buy the park from affiliates of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association.

"There was a lot of impetus to get deals closed by year-end," according to J. Donald Wasil, local partner and co-chairman of the law firm Shutts & Bowen LLP's Real Estate Department. Wasil headed the team of attorneys representing the seller in the Miami International Commerce Center transaction. Buyers want their money invested, he says, and sellers wanted the income to count for 2003 rather than the next year. He added that a lot of deals lose momentum and may never close if they are not completed by year-end.

Seven to 10 years ago, when tax laws were different, "year-end used to be crazy," he says. Then things slowed for several years. "This year is seeing a resurgence of deals closing" for reasons other than tax reasons.

"We had a lot of large (sales)," says Chris Gallagher, who was involved in the late 2003 sale of a 103,000-sf warehouse building in Fort Lauderdale, FL, for $3.8 million. Dr. Mark Ginsburg purchased the building, at 2030 W. McNab Rd., which had been vacant and foreclosed on by Wells Fargo Bank. "It has a lot to do with market conditions and low interest rates," Gallagher says. "The sales market in the last year or so has just been extremely hot. Everyone was just looking to purchase, and prices kept escalating."

A year-end Miami-Dade industrial investments report by CB Richard Ellis states: "By year's end, we expect a substantial increase in total sf sold and per-sf price. This being due to the sale of some of the county's largest commerce parks.