A Publix subsidiary paid $83.25 million for Airpark Plaza, a 204,740-square-foot retail center it anchors near Miami International Airport, according to a deed filed this week and reported by Commercial Observer and The Real Deal. The Lakeland, Florida-based grocery chain bought the property at 5705 Northwest Seventh Street from an affiliate of First Washington Realty of Bethesda, Maryland.
Built in the 1970s, Airpark Plaza spans seven single-story buildings across three parcels and last traded in 2008; The Real Deal and a South Florida deal-sheet roundup both put that earlier sale at $32.9 million, while Commercial Observer’s figure was $36.8 million, a discrepancy this piece can’t resolve from available sourcing. Either way, this week’s price works out to roughly $407 per square foot. Major tenants beyond the Publix supermarket include Burlington and Alain’s Design Furniture. The seller, CJ Partners South Florida LLC, had bought the site for $6.9 million in 2014; the sale arrives ahead of a contentious divorce trial involving the seller’s principals scheduled for October 19, though available reporting doesn’t establish that timing as the specific reason for the sale.
The brief framing this story as Publix’s “second” disclosed Miami-area plaza purchase understates what’s actually a much longer, well-documented pattern. Reporting from The Real Deal puts Publix’s total spending on Florida shopping plazas at roughly $410 million over just the past two years, with acquisitions also recorded in Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Kendall and North Miami. Separate, earlier reporting shows the pattern goes back further still: in December 2025, Publix paid $83 million for Polo Club Shops in Boca Raton, two months after paying $71.9 million for Hammocks Town Center in Kendall, bringing cumulative spending at that point to nearly $428 million since mid-2025 across a standalone store and eight Publix-anchored centers. In September 2024, Publix paid a combined $83 million for two separate Davie shopping centers as part of a larger $224 million, seven-property portfolio purchase from PGIM Real Estate. Those are three distinct transactions that happen to share a similar dollar figure near $83 million, worth naming individually so they aren’t confused with this week’s Airpark Plaza deal, which is its own separate purchase…