Ryder Sells Doral Site Plans To Move

By Samantha Joseph
Transportation management company Ryder System Inc. has sold the Doral site it occupied for decades to Shoma Development for $39 million.

Ryder currently occupies 400,000 square feet in its own building at 3600 NW 82nd St. It plans to lease a much smaller office a few miles away next year, but it will lease its offices back from Shoma until the 2005 relocation.

By next March, Ryder is to move about 7 miles to the Beacon Station Business Park at 11690 NW 105th St., where it will rent a 250,000-square-foot office from Flagler Development Corp.

The current site has been Ryder’s world headquarters since 1973. The firm, which was founded in Miami in 1933, is a Fortune 500 company with more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

When it first moved into the Doral office, eight Ryder businesses operated from the office, said David Bruce, group director of corporate communications.

When company consolidations left only subsidiaries in the office, he said, administrators decided to relocate to smaller premises.

"This location does not accommodate the type of teamwork and departmental interaction that is required in our company today," Mr. Bruce said. "Basically, the new space will be more efficient. It will allow staff to be more collaborative and really meet what our requirements are today."