7 Slater Drive in Elizabeth — Courtesy: Cushman & Wakefield
By Joshua Burd
A development site in northern New Jersey’s booming port region is on the market for sale, in a newly announced offering by Cushman & Wakefield.
According to the brokerage team, the tract at 7 Slater Drive in Elizabeth is currently home to a 130,000-square-foot former e-commerce distribution center. Ownership is now looking to sell the 5.46-acre property, Cushman said, noting that it’s minutes from Port Newark-Elizabeth and Staten Island and a short drive from Newark Liberty International Airport, Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Holland and Lincoln tunnels and the Outerbridge Crossing.
C&W added that there is currently only 1.2 million square feet of new industrial space under construction within the Port submarket, representing just 0.4 percent of the overall industry in New Jersey.
“This site offers the rare opportunity to construct a state-of-the-art industrial property that will heavily benefit from its sought-after Port location,” the firm’s Kyle Schmidt said. “Furthermore, the Port industrial submarket is characterized by an average inventory age of 58 years old. Once redeveloped, 7 Slater will be on a short list of modern, highly functional, and perfectly sized logistics facilities all located six miles from the Port Newark entry gate.”
The C&W marketing team includes Charles Fern, Schmidt, Thomas D. Tucci and Stephen Shoemaker. They said the parcel is ideal for food distribution and manufacturing as well as a third-party logistics use, citing the Port of New York and New Jersey’s growing traffic.
To that end, the port is the nation’s second-busiest with more than 60,000 unique truck visits per week on average, creating ample demand for industrial outdoor storage in the surrounding area, according to C&W research. The greater Port submarket ranks as one of New Jersey’s highest in annual rent growth, totaling 154 percent over the last five years, which equates to a 31 percent annual average increase.
Additionally, the firm said, industrial outdoor storage rents in Port Newark exceed $35,000 per acre per month, while similarly located new construction rents have surpassed $30 per square foot.
