Cell phone firm doubles size of Miami headquarters

By Marilyn Bowden
   Brightstar, a supplier of cell phones to Latin America, will start the new year in new corporate headquarters at Beacon Center that more than doubles the size of its present Miami base.
   The company leased 118,897 square feet at the industrial park at 8323 NW 12th St.,, said Tony DeRosa, a broker at Westvest Associates who represented the telecom giant in the deal. Its present offices are in 48,000 square feet at 2701 NW 107th Ave., according to spokesperson Marcelo Claure.
   He said the move is scheduled for Dec. 29.
   Dave Petersen, Brightstar principal, said the new facility, which will be used for product development, manufacturing, storage and distribution, will "definitely mean more local jobs if we continue to expand."
   The firm now employs about 200, Mr. Claure said.
   With consolidated revenues of $355 million at the end of 2000 and expectations of topping $500 million for 2001, Brightstar claims to be the largest and fastest-growing US distributor of cell phones and other wireless products to Latin America and the Caribbean.
   The company was founded in 1997 in Miami and expanded US operations in October by opening a US headquarters in Vernon Hills, IL, just outside Chicago. It was ranked the eighth-largest, Latino-owned company in the nation by "Hispanic Business" magazine.
   About 33,000 square feet of the new space in Miami, or nearly 28%, will be used for offices, said David Spillers, vice president of sales & leasing for Codina Realty Services Oncor International, which represented Beacon Centre in the transaction.
   "That's atypical," he said. "The average is more like 10%, and not long ago it used to be 5% to 7%."
   He said the space was built-out by former tenant CHS Electronics.
   The 205-acre park is now about 99% occupied, Mr. Spillers said. Other recent leases include Premium Flowers, which took 24,000 square feet; Riverdale Farms, also a flower vendor, 32,000 square feet, and UTC, a logistics firm, 14,000 square feet.
   Codina, which developed the park, sold it to Boston- and San Francisco-based AMB Properties about a year ago.