A rendering of the Linden Logistics Center, where vertical construction is set to begin on the first two of eight buildings totaling 4.1 million square feet. — Courtesy: Advance Realty Investors
By Joshua Burd
A joint venture is nearing the start of construction for its first two buildings at a long-awaited, 4.1 million-square-foot warehouse and logistics park in Linden.
The development group — which includes Advance Realty Investors, Greek Development and PGIM Real Estate — will kick off the so-called Linden Logistics Center with buildings of 480,000 and 840,000 square feet. The partnership has secured vertical financing and is aiming to begin construction in early spring, with delivery slated for the fourth quarter.
That will likely set the stage for a surge in tenant interest at the site, which is just east of the New Jersey Turnpike, given the ongoing lack of supply in the state’s booming industrial market. Plans call for up to eight buildings at the site off Tremley Point Road.
“The activity to date has been really solid,” said Bill Bumber, Advance Realty’s managing director of industrial development. “But it was about picking a date that we were delivering and it was about getting underway. That’s really the northern New Jersey industrial marketplace. A lot of it comes down to having a wall up — being able to physically see that construction is progressing and that we’re going to be able to live up to the schedule that we’ve told that tenant.”
The sight of construction crews will be a welcome one at the 350-acre parcel, which was heavily contaminated by decades of chemical manufacturing activity. Plans by previous developers never materialized, paving the way for Advance and Greek to take control of the site in 2018.
Since then, the developers have been completing remediation and large-scale infrastructure improvements, including the construction of a new bridge over an adjacent railroad.
“Everything that you’d expect in a northern New Jersey industrial development, we have all of it here, which is a testament to everybody who’s been on this,” said Bumber, who joined Advance last fall after five years with Prologis.
Brokers with CBRE have been marketing the project over the past year, but Bumber believes the start of vertical construction will create a new level of buzz among prospective users. The property is 10 miles from the Port of New York and New Jersey, within a day’s drive of 100 million consumers and surrounded by a deep labor pool, which is a key draw for tenants.
Aside from traditional logistics and e-commerce requirements, Bumber said the park has attracted interest from cold storage users. Tenants have also inquired about the site’s waterfront access and the potential to expand within the complex’s vast footprint.
Advance, meantime, has also partnered with Greek Development on a planned 3 million-square-foot logistics park in Logan Township, which could also start construction this spring. Bumber is spearheading development, construction and leasing for the two large projects, he said, “(but) I think what’s also important is Advance is out there in the marketplace looking for more.”
“We have an appetite for industrial, not unlike a lot of people right now, and we’re out there looking for opportunities, whether that’s new development sites, whether that’s building acquisitions,” he said. “We want it to be known that we’re out there as well right now.”
Developers, brokers launch 4.1 million sq. ft. logistics center project in Linden