Walmart takes entire Medley warehouse on 16-year lease

Walmart has signed on as the tenant at Seagis Property Group's newly completed warehouse in Medley, Florida, in a deal that public documents indicate covers the entire 130,150-square-foot building under a 16-year lease. Three five-year extension options could keep the retail giant at 10900 Northwest 138th Street, along West Okeechobee Road near the Florida Turnpike, through 2057, a horizon that makes the lease a generation-long commitment. Commercial Observer first reported the deal.

Seagis built the property for a big-box distribution user—40-foot clear height, two drive-in doors, 46 dock-high positions—and completed it this year, four years after buying the 13.2-acre site for $17.5 million, property records show. With Walmart's lease appearing to cover the entire footprint, the building skips the leasing risk that often trails newly completed industrial boxes, particularly as industrial subsectors move in different directions.

The extension options are cut into five-year blocks, giving Walmart room to match occupancy to its evolving supply-chain needs while handing Seagis a visible rent roll. Sixteen firm years is long enough to stretch across multiple economic cycles, which is why the deal reads as a bet that South Florida industrial demand will hold up over time rather than a quarter-to-quarter inventory decision.

Walmart's other South Florida moves point the same way: an $11.7 million purchase in August of a 24-acre Palm Beach County parcel for a superstore, and a renewal late last year of an 83,342-square-foot industrial lease in Pompano Beach, according to a Cushman & Wakefield market report. Taken together, the transactions suggest the retailer is consolidating its distribution and store footprint in the region rather than trimming it.

The Medley lease also comes as industrial subsectors diverge, and cold storage vacancy hit a record 7.7%, as this publication has reported, even as general industrial demand holds. A 16-year Walmart commitment on a brand-new box is not a broad bet on industrial recovery; it is a credit-tenant trade, one that converts newly delivered warehouse space into an income stream development lenders underwrite against. Walmart gets distribution capacity without owning the asset, and Seagis gets a tenant that could remain in place through 2057.