A rendering of a building at Crow Holdings at Carteret — Courtesy: Crow Holdings Industrial
By Joshua Burd
Crow Holdings Industrial has acquired 126 acres along the New Jersey Turnpike in Carteret, where it plans to develop a three-building, 1.2 million-square-foot industrial park.
The company is now eyeing a summer groundbreaking for the site, located north of Industrial Highway near the mouth of the Rahway River, after purchasing it from Rahway Arch Properties. The speculative project will deliver buildings ranging from 335,000 to 480,000 square feet, as the developer looks to tap into the still-soaring demand for logistics space.
Crow Holdings at Carteret will also bring new life to a long-dormant site that underwent an extensive environmental cleanup.
“With e-commerce gaining steam over the past few years, my administration has long recognized the importance of industrial construction in our town’s economic redevelopment initiatives, and it’s exciting to see a national developer like Crow Holdings begin a project of this magnitude,” Carteret Mayor Daniel J. Reiman said. “Besides creating ratables, these industrial facilities will bring hundreds of Union construction jobs and hundreds of full-time permanent jobs to Carteret residents, all of which will benefit the borough more broadly. While this once-abandoned site has been underutilized for many years, it’s exciting to see it begin the next chapter in its story as an economic engine that serves the needs of Carteret and surrounding areas.”
Crow Holdings has tapped Cushman & Wakefield’s Stan Danzig, Jules Nissim and Kim Bach to lease the space, which will bring new options to the vastly undersupplied New Jersey industrial market. It will also come to a submarket off Exit 12 of the Turnpike that has emerged over the past decade to attract Amazon and other corporate users.
Rahway Arch and its team have spent the past decade cleaning up the site, which was left contaminated by decades of manufacturing uses in the area. The seller ultimately received full approvals from New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection.
“The redevelopment of this site is good for the town as a tax ratable and because it brings more jobs,” said Rinaldo D’Argenio, Rahway Arch’s managing member. “Crow Holdings’ proven ability to deliver and close on complicated transactions is further evidenced by its acquisition of the property.”
The project will follow Crow Holdings’ high-profile development of a 925,000-square-foot logistics property in Franklin Township, which it leased to LG Electronics USA before selling it last year for $164 million. The deal punctuated the Dallas-based firm’s entrance to the Northeast.
In Carteret, its buildings will feature 40-foot clear ceiling heights, with a combined 140 trailer parking spots, 174 dock doors and six drive-in ramps.
“Several years into the transformation of the industrial real estate industry, developable land has become scarce in this region, and a parcel of this size on the Turnpike presents a very compelling opportunity,” said Clark Machemer, senior managing director of Crow Holdings Industrial. “With access to a strong labor pool and Carteret’s pro-business climate, the strategic location of this property makes it an unmatched spot for 21st-century industrial development. We’re anticipating kicking off construction very soon, with the goal of delivering the first building in the first half of 2022.”
