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28 SUMMER 2025
third-party clients.
Greek, meantime, noted that some
of the fi rms have been busing their
labor force to New Jersey from
pockets of Queens, where there are
large East Asian populations. That
means that Burlington is the farthest
south that many of the operators
will look, he said, especially with
most of their product coming
through Port Newark-Elizabeth.
The deals have not been without
challenges, especially with those
fi rms that are new to the U.S. or
to the East Coast. That’s made all
the more complicated by a lack of
credit and operating history, which
would give developers pause in a
more landlord-friendly market.
“For the newer operating
companies, the startups and the
ones signing leases for the fi rst
time, often there is not really any
clarity on what their business model
is or who their clients are,” Greek
said. “Sometimes they’ll have an
account that they’re responsible
for distributing for from China, but
they’re signing leases that are much,
GREP has asked some Asia-based
tenants for credit statements “and
they’ve come in a lot of different
much larger than that single account
requires and kind of betting on their
own ability to win more business
once they secure the space.”
uncertainty about President
Trump’s sweeping tariff program
and the ongoing trade war with
China. For one thing, Knee said the
fundamentals are still strong with
Others have strategies that landlord
T The operators are The operators are
rents still above pre-COVID levels.
are more accustomed to seeing,
he said, with clients in hand to fi ll
p poised to be major poised to be major
And landlords “are doing what they
need to do” to fi ll space,” he said,
the space immediately and “more
players in New players in New players in New
setting the stage for the market to
of an operating history, more of a
tighten later this year.
credit presence.” That diversity is
Jersey in the months
“not that dissimilar from domestic
3PLs,” Greek added, but the
ahead, despite
language barrier with Asia-based
looming uncertainty
operators can make it more diffi cult
“to understand what they’re doing
about President
and what they intend to do. And
Greek also disputed the idea that
tariffs in any form will cut off the
fl ow of goods from China to the
U.S., as some may fear. The fi rm’s
experience with Asia-based 3PLs
suggests otherwise.
often, the clients behind them are
Trump’s sweeping
“Our conversations with these
companies that we’re not familiar
tariff program and the ariff program and th riff program and t
tenants have been much different,”
with, either because they are
Chinese manufacturers or goods
ongoing trade war ongoing trade war
he said, calling it “much more of a
sliding scale, where certain levels
distributors from Asia that just
with China with China.
of tariffs will impact the amount of
don’t have a presence here in any
business they can bring into the U.S.
meaningful way.”
They can bring the most business
There’s also the task of analyzing an
offshore tenant’s fi nancial position.
into the U.S. with no tariffs at all,
but if tariffs are 10 percent or 20
percent or 30 or 50 percent, there’s
“With any foreign company,
it’s a lot more diffi cult to really
get comfortable with fi nancial
statements,” Greek said, noting that
still a level of business that will
occur there — and it’s a meaningful
level of business.” RE
forms. We’ve had to learn a little
bit about how other people do their
accounting.”
The operators are poised to be
major players in New Jersey in the
months ahead, despite looming
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