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18 FEBRUARY 2020
CHARTING THE COURSE
With massive logistics projects set to begin, Bumber eyes growth of Advance’s industrial pipeline
Developers were long aware of the long-dormant, 350-acre site in Linden along the New
Jersey Turnpike, one that offered vast potential for industrial space if not for the contamination left by decades of chemical manufacturing activity.
For Bill Bumber, a former Prologis executive, it was a familiar sight during his daily commute from
“That’s when you knew something was going on back there,” said Bumber, who recalls pulling off to the side
of the highway to try to gauge the progress at the site, knowing that it required extensive remediation and infrastructure upgrades before it could ever break ground.
These days, Bumber views the project from a much different vantage point. The industry veteran joined Advance Realty Investors last fall as its managing director of industrial development, with the goal of spearheading and growing the firm’s pipeline of warehouse and logistics projects. That includes both the 4.1 million-square-foot Linden Logistics Center off Tremley Point Road and another high-profile joint venture with Greek Development, a planned 3 million-square-foot industrial park in Logan Township.
Both sites are progressing and drawing interest from prospective users, he said. At the eight-building Linden project, which also counts PGIM Real
Estate as a partner, the developers have secured financing for vertical construction and are now moving forward with two buildings of 480,000 and 840,000 square feet, with delivery slated for the fourth quarter.
By that point, there’s little chance that Bumber will have lost sight of everything it took to get there.
“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,” he said.
To discuss the project and the rest of Advance’s industrial pipeline, Real Estate NJ recently sat down with Bumber. Below are excerpts from our interview.
RE : We know that you’re close to completing a new bridge over an existing rail line near the site. Tell us more about why that is key to starting vertical construction.
BILL BUMBER: The reason for putting in the bridge is that the rail line can
cut off your access, so if you’re going to develop a park like this, that’ll be question No. 1 that a tenant would ask. There were others on this project before us and that bridge was always something talked about in the industry — how hard it was going to be, how expensive it would be to build and construct — and it’s a testament to the partnership here that they figured it out.
RE : With that in mind, what type of interest are you getting at the park as you prepare to go vertical?
BB: Obviously we’re a dot on the map unlike any other right now, especially with the ability to build out 4.1 million feet. Customers have come to us — all of the name brands that you’re seeing out in the marketplace right now — and one of the things that’s really attractive is we’ve had several users talk to us about the waterfront access that we have. We’ve had several users look at us, too, because of their ability to expand within the park: Maybe they take one building, (but) they don’t stop there. They can just keep on going. And there’s the proximity to the ports, the proximity to population density. Linden has an incredibly strong labor force, really good labor fundamentals, and there are several customers that have picked this site specifically due to that.
RE : We’ve heard that the cold storage market is possibly even more undersupplied than traditional warehousing. What interest have you gotten from cold storage users and how open are you to considering that as part of the uses?
BB: We’ve absolutely seen cold storage users within the park put out RFPs for several of the facilities.
We’re very interested in talking to cold storage users. Each one of those deals can be a little bit nuanced, given the high upfront costs, but it’s definitely something that we’re looking at and it’s definitely something that’s on the
Development had taken control of the site in 2018, the change at the property was almost immediately noticeable.
Crews were on site, equipment was visible and construction was soon underway on an all-important overpass leading to the property.
By Joshua Burd
Bill Bumber
Monmouth County to the company’s office in East Rutherford. But, as he recalled, when he learned that Advance Realty Investors and Greek
A long-dormant, 350-acre former manufacturing site in Linden is slated to become the Linden Logistics Center, a planned eight-building, 4.1 million- square-foot industrial development by Advance Realty Investors, Greek Development and PGIM Real Estate.
Courtesy: Advance Realty Investors