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    we’re a quarter-mile from the train, so you have to ... realize that there’s a huge opportunity for that.”
For his part, Hawthorne Mayor Richard Goldberg said it was important for the project to not “create a community within a community” that would be isolated from other residents. Borough officials and the Bedrin family have managed to achieve that after more than a decade, largely by blending their respective visions for the site.
“We’ve had great hopes for this piece of property and it’s thrilling to see a brownfield site become something important in the community,” Goldberg said during the May 27 groundbreaking. “It’s a great thing, so I thank the Bedrin family for
their persistence and their vision, and today we’re breaking ground on what’s going to be a great project.”
The project’s residential component includes 60 percent two-bedroom and 40 percent one-bedroom units, Bedrin said. It will also include amenities such as a 750-square-foot rooftop deck, dog parks, co-working space and rentable private office suites for residents, he said, citing a focus on both remote workers and health and wellness.
Bedrin said he expects the project to draw both young families and empty-nesters who are downsizing from single-family homes. Those residents will also benefit from the site’s other uses, including
the Planet Fitness along Wagaraw Road, for which they will have complementary memberships,
along with the four-story, climate- controlled self-storage facility on the western edge of the parcel.
“We think it’s just a smart, symbiotic relationship with the apartments,” Bedrin said. “When people rent apartments, they tend to have
space as a premium, so they need the extra storage, or maybe they’re downsizing from a larger home,
so having the on-site storage, we think, works really well with the apartments.”
Additionally, the self-storage building will act as a sort of sound wall to protect against noise from an adjacent beverage distribution facility on Wagaraw Road, which draws daily truck traffic. It also represents an asset class that has become increasingly attractive to
real estate investors.
“The building naturally became the barrier, so that was really the push point that opened this whole thing up, that made the deal happen,” Bedrin said.
Valley Bank is financing the project, whose team also includes Langan, Keystone Structural Group, DJM Consulting Engineers, Studio 5 Partnership and Besta. Bedrin had tapped March Associates as its general contractor around two years ago, but recently asked the Wayne- based firm to come in as a partner.
It was a natural fit for a relationship that goes back more than three decades, when March Associates founder Lou March was a customer of the Bedrins’ office supplies business at the time.
Both firms are also multigenerational operations. Murray Bedrin founded the family’s original business, Allied Office Products, in 1947 before welcoming sons Paul and Jerry in 1969 and 1972, respectively. They grew the company over the next two decades and eventually transitioned to real estate, as the business would also
come to include both Michael and Garret Bedrin as its third generation.
“It’s a great project and a great partner,” said
Lou March
Jr., president
 of March
Associates.
“They’re very
strong in
ownership and
financing and
we’re really
strong in construction, so it made sense ... We’ll build off each other’s strengths.” RE
Lou March Jr.,
     PROPERTY THAT PERFORMS
Rockefeller Group is dedicated to excellence in the built environment. Over the past five years, our development team and capital partners have completed more than 5 million square feet of industrial and logistics property throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
With more than 30 years of industrial development experience, our projects connect products with customers as efficiently as possible, delivering ease-of-access from major ports and inland distribution hubs to the nation’s largest population centers.
10 Edison I Edison, NJ Completion and sale: 2020
  NJ/PA DEVELOPMENT
Mark Shearer | 973 448 3594 mshearer@rockefellergroup.com






























































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