Baptist Health South Florida paid $53.5 million for the 92,700-square-foot Kohl's store and its 8.2-acre parcel at 6950 North State Road 7 in Coconut Creek — $577.13 per square foot, or $6,524,390 per acre, at a building-to-land coverage of 25.95%. Kohl's acquired the property in 2008 for $14.8 million, or $159.65 per foot, making the trade 3.61 times that basis, up 261.5%, a 7.40% compound annual gain over 18 years. The site sits inside the Caligo Crossing center near Hillsboro Blvd in northern Broward County. The store remains open, and Baptist has said plans for the site are under evaluation.
No retail investor was going to pay $577 a foot for a Kohl's box in Broward County. The buyer is not underwriting rent — it is underwriting a patient catchment. Baptist already operates ten Broward locations; this is network geometry, not opportunism.
Health systems buy real estate on a different arithmetic than landlords. A site's value is the incremental service volume it captures from a defined population inside a defined drive time, and in a mature, built-out county like Broward, sites that satisfy that geometry are scarce in a way that has nothing to do with retail fundamentals.
The 8.2-acre parcel at 25.95% coverage is what makes it work. Three-quarters of the site is open, which means surface parking, drop-off circulation, imaging expansion and phased build-out are all available without assembling adjacent land.
Buying an operating store is the more revealing detail. Baptist did not wait for a vacancy. It paid a going-concern premium to a solvent retailer to take the site off the market before anyone else got a look, and it is willing to carry an open Kohl's while it works through entitlements.
Kohl's 2008-to-2026 outcome — 7.40% a year on the real estate — quietly outperformed most of what the retail sector delivered over the same window. Owning the box beat operating in it.
Implications. Big-box retail's exit velocity is no longer set by retail demand. Health systems, and increasingly education and municipal users, are re-pricing well-located boxes on parcel geometry and catchment rather than on sales per square foot or achievable rent. For owners of large-format retail near dense residential catchments with generous surface parking, the highest bid in the market may not come from a retail buyer at all — and it may arrive while the tenant is still trading. Post-closing use remains unconfirmed; Baptist has not committed to a program or a timeline.
Key Takeaways
- The most valuable thing about a dead-mall-era big box is the parking lot it was built on.
- Big-box exit velocity is now set by healthcare, education and municipal catchment demand — not by retail fundamentals.
- Kohl's made 7.40% a year owning the real estate, which beat most of what the retail sector delivered operating in it.
The Real Deal Miami, September 3, 2026, on Broward County deed records
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