Corridor Thesis
Opa-Locka
Opa-Locka is a basis trade, not the core institutional bet. It belongs in the room because the entry basis is meaningfully cheaper than Airport West or Medley, but the corridor should be presented as optionality with material environmental, political and utility execution risk.
Performance Food Group still paid $55.46/SF for a 3.53-acre industrial site in March 2025. That gives the corridor a real top-end comp, but not enough to justify pretending Opa-Locka is de-risked.
- Entry basis range
- 9.18-38.26
- $/SF land before soft costs.
- Supported exit
- $55.46 / SF
- Public comp-supported takeout only.
- Basis-to-exit spread
- 17.20 to 46.28 / SF
- Before financing, taxes and promote.
- Public pipeline
- 2
- 0 under LOI across 12.3 acres.
Deal Economics
Land-trade gross margin
49.6%
Assumes midpoint basis plus $4.25 / SF of soft cost.
Land-trade unlevered IRR
31.5%
30-month hold.
All-in development cost
$12.56M / MW
$1,288 / GSF at 8 MW.
Stabilized yield on cost
6.8%
Using $185.00 / kW / month and 82.0% occupancy.
Development unlevered IRR
1.9%
6.75% exit cap on a four-year hold.
Corridor power screen
8-12 MW
No public corridor-level power disclosure was verified. Everything here should be treated as a conditional screen pending utility and environmental letters.
Representative Parcel Screens
Public-facing pipeline table
| Parcel | Folio | Acreage | Current zoning | Target zoning | Ask | Land basis | Entitlement | Diligence | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
15015 NW 22nd Ave Commercial Land Small but real public listing with an actual street-facing land image. Works as an optionality screen, not a flagship campus parcel. | 30-3022-***-0890 | 0.27 | 6600 Commercial | Commercial / mixed-use | $450K | $38.26 / SF | 9-16 mo. | 6.9 / 10 | Under Screen |
Opa-Locka Airport Periphery - 12 Acres Cheap basis with material environmental risk. Keep it in the stack only with a disciplined diligence gate. | 08-2118-***-0100 | 12.00 | GU | IU-1 | $4.8M | $9.18 / SF | 12-18 mo. | 5.0 / 10 | Under Screen |
Return Sensitivity
Development IRR by basis and exit cap
| Basis case | 6.50% exit cap | 6.75% exit cap | 7.25% exit cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 3.6% | 2.7% | 1.0% |
| Base | 2.8% | 1.9% | 0.2% |
| High | 2.0% | 1.1% | -0.6% |
Low / Base / High reflect the low end, midpoint and high end of corridor land plus utility-cost screens. Construction cost is held at the JLL 2025 global average of $10.7M/MW.
Utility Diligence
Power and energization posture
Substation proximity
Case-by-case; no public benchmark located
Key Bay Capital • 2026-03-31
Public capacity disclosure
None verified
Key Bay Capital • 2026-03-31
Interconnection cost
$6.0M-$10.0M screen
Key Bay Capital • 2026-03-31
Timeline to energization
30-42 months base case
Key Bay Capital • 2026-03-31
Environmental & Entitlement Risk
Risk matrix
Entitlement
HighOpa-Locka stories are only attractive because they assume more zoning and political work.
Mitigation: Keep it to a shadow pipeline until Phase I / Phase II and early municipal reads support the thesis.
Utility
HighNo published corridor-level capacity support could be located.
Mitigation: Require written utility response before any hard-money pursuit or LOI.
Environmental
HighAirport-adjacent industrial history raises the odds of contamination, fill and drainage complications.
Mitigation: Phase I first, then kill or reprice aggressively if a Phase II is triggered.
Community / politics
ModerateAny heavy-power project near airport and residential edges can draw public process friction.
Mitigation: Do not sell this as a near-term core deployment market; underwrite longer holds and heavier contingency.
Source Stack
Every number should tell you where it came from
Performance Food Group Buys 3.53-Acre Opa-Locka Site for $8.53M
Traded • 2025-03-07
Opa-Locka industrial land comp. Derived basis equals $55.46/SF on 3.53 acres.
Open sourceNorth America Data Center Trends H2 2025
CBRE Research • 2026-02-26
Primary-market average asking rate increased to $195.94/kW/month. Sites with power access inside 18-36 months are highly sought after. Powered sites in Northern Virginia and the Northeast exceeded $8 million per acre.
Open sourceData center availability crisis deepens as vacancy hits historic low
JLL • 2025-08-22
JLL says North America inventory reached 15.5 GW in H1 2025 and average asset-level cap rates held around 6%.
Open sourceCorridor Capacity Screen Assumptions
Key Bay Capital • 2026-03-31
Medley and Opa-Locka lack publicly disclosed corridor-level capacity letters. Capacity ranges shown are screening estimates only and should be replaced with utility will-serve letters at LOI.
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