Mormon church’s real estate arm drops $174M for Beacon industrial park in Hialeah

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ commercial real estate arm dropped $174.3 million for the Beacon Logistics Park in Hialeah. 

Property Reserve, which invests the LDS church’s reserve funds, bought the majority of the 1.3 million-square-foot industrial campus on the northeast corner of Northwest 107th Avenue and Northwest 145th Place from Codina Partners, according to records. The purchase closed in three separate deals. 

Coral Gables-based Codina and San Antonio, Texas-based Affinius Capital are developing Beacon Logistics. Codina is led by father-daughter team Armando Codina and Ana-Marie Codina Barlick. Affinius, led by Len O’Donnell, previously was known as the partnership between USAA Real Estate and Square Mile Capital.  

Beacon Logistics includes six buildings spanning 1.1 million square feet, Sebastian Juncadella, a Fairchild Partners broker leasing the campus, told The Real Deal. Buildings A, B, E and F are completed. Buildings C and D are under construction, with completion expected next year. Beacon Logistics also includes two outparcels that could be developed. 

Property Reserve bought Buildings A, B, E and F, as well as the outparcels. It will purchase Buildings C and D once they are completed, according to a Codina spokesperson. 

In the biggest of the three deals, Property Reserve paid $97.8 million for 50 acres at 4121 West 91st Place, according to records. The site consists of Buildings A and B, and the two outparcels. 

Property Reserve bought the 8.1-acre Building E site at 4220 West 91st Place for $38.4 million, as well as the 8.3-acre Building F site at 4120 West 91st Place for $38.1 million, records show.   

Building D, spanning 232,600 square feet, is available for lease, Juncadella said. The rest of Beacon Logistics is leased. 

In August, power tools company Makita Latin America took 92,300 square feet at the industrial campus. Impact windows company All Glass Production had planned to move into Building D, but instead took space in Pembroke Pines, sources had told TRD. 

Property Reserve, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, was founded in 1961, according to its LinkedIn. It’s led by CEO Ashley Powell. 

In the Chicago area, Property Reserve bought a 40-story, 397-unit South Loop apartment tower at 1001 South State Street in 2018. Shortly after that deal, Property Reserve paid $70.6 million for the Bridge Point complex at 555 Northwest Avenue in Northlake, near Chicago. 

Separate from Property Reserve, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has faced criticism over the size of its investment portfolio and the limited public disclosure requirements over the church’s finances. A 2019 whistleblower complaint over LDS church’s $100 billion investment portfolio and its investment portfolio manager, Ensign Peak Advisors, led to an investigation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Last year, the church and Ensign Peak Advisors settled for $1 million and $4 million, respectively, over the SEC’s claims that the church’s investment portfolio was obscured through the use of about a dozen limited liability companies. The church and Ensign neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in the settlement. 

Property Reserve closed the Beacon Logistics purchase in late December. The deal marks the second biggest industrial investment sale in South Florida of 2023. In the biggest deal, Longpoint Partners bought 25 industrial buildings spanning 1.4 million square feet across Miami-Dade and Broward counties for a combined $262 million. 

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