Page 18 - RE-NJ Aug2020

16 AUGUST 2020
Ben Rosen
Linden,
marked Duke Realty’s first development
in the booming New Jersey market. Equally important — the speculative
GROWTH MODE
Duke Realty eyes continued expansion with projects in New Jersey’s top industrial markets
Ben Rosen didn’t join Duke Realty Corp. until late 2016, but he knows full well the importance
of the company’s three-building, 1.1 million-square-foot industrial park that broke ground more than two years earlier.
The complex, the Legacy Commerce Center in
increased focus here of resources and personnel,” said Rosen, the company’s vice president of development and leasing in New Jersey. “And when I joined it was very much in growth mode and we’ve been very busy growing since then.”
That focus has paid off for Duke Realty, an Indianapolis-based real estate investment trust that owns
155 million square feet of logistics space nationwide. The company over the past five years has built its New Jersey portfolio to nearly 8 million square feet, with a roster of well- known tenants and a collection of modern industrial buildings along the New Jersey Turnpike corridor.
The REIT is now poised for further expansion here — with industrial demand only heightened by the pandemic — as it moves ahead with several high-profile developments.
In Perth Amboy, it’s now delivering a two-building, 1.25 million-square-foot
complex that is preleased to Home Depot. It also recently broke ground at 150 Old New Brunswick Road in Piscataway, the site of a planned 622,230-square-foot property that it expects to deliver early next year.
“In a highly competitive market, we’re proud of what we’ve been able to do,” Rosen said.
Founded in 1972, Duke Realty has moved in recent years to expand beyond the Midwest and to focus primarily on industrial space in top- tier coastal markets. The company made its first foray into New Jersey in 2013, purchasing three buildings
in Cranbury and Logan Township with a combined 1.3 million square feet. Over the next three years, it successfully developed and leased the 60-acre Legacy Commerce Center on Route 1&9 in Linden, opened a Northeast office in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania and hired Rosen as
its first “boots on the ground” in
New Jersey, as it eyed continued expansion in the state.
Those steps gave way to a blockbuster deal in late 2017, when the company agreed to acquire nearly 2.3 million square feet across six buildings in New Jersey from Bridge Development Partners, along with two development sites that would yield another 855,000 square feet. The nearly $700 million deal, which also included sites in Southern California and South Florida, was a key step toward establishing Duke Realty as a major player in the state.
“That was a game-changer for us,” said Rosen, who is based in the REIT’s Jersey City office. “They
were well-located assets along the New Jersey Turnpike that gave us
an opportunity to grow and hit the ground running, both on development and acquisitions, with all very good, quality properties.
“Those buildings are all fully leased and we’re very happy with that transaction as we look back three years.”
The company has since focused primarily on development in New Jersey, as it looks to do across
its footprint. Its other signature transaction in the state, the Steel Run Logistics Center in Perth Amboy, is
a build-to-suit for Home Depot that was several years in the making and announced last year. The two-building, 1.3 million-square-foot complex at 225 Elm St. is just about complete and will mark the revitalization of what was an abandoned, contaminated steel mill property.
“From a lifecycle perspective,
some of these old industrial sites that have a long, storied history
for manufacturing going back over
a hundred years are now coming back as industrial sites, but from
a distribution perspective,” Rosen said, noting that the acquisition from Bridge included a three-building, 1.3
project was met with the type of interest that a developer could only hope for, drawing the likes of Blue Apron, Wayfair and others that occupy the site today.
“They got a taste of the demand in New Jersey and that led to an
By Joshua Burd
Duke Realty Corp. is now delivering a two-building, 1.25 million-square-foot industrial development at 225 Elm St. in Perth Amboy. Known as the Steel Run Logistics Center, the property is preleased to Home Depot.
Courtesy: Duke Realty