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uptick. All of the buzz you hear is talking about cold storage, and no question it’s located here, too, because of the population density.
We’ve definitely seen them. We would definitely consider it for the park.
RE : When would you say tenants are comfortable signing a lease these days? Especially for a site that sat dormant for so long, despite all of the work that Advance and Greek have done to date.
BB: The activity to date has been really solid. 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.
We continue to see really strong market fundamentals also. Rents
are really strong in the northern submarkets. We’re seeing land prices exceed everyone’s expectations and it’s due to the lack of available space, due to the lack of available land.
The process for when you go under development or when you tie up a site — as what’s happened here — is years before you can begin.
RE : Have you heard from any tenants that they might want to cut back part of a building to add parking?
BB: There are certainly requirements out there for parking and there are certainly tenants who have said, ‘Hey, we’re going to look at the adjacent space — would you give us a number for that adjacent space and not put
a building on it?’ So it’s absolutely happening.
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.
We’re talking to them. We haven’t made any commitments to do just car parking, trailer storage, van storage, yard space, whatever it might be, but they’re definitely out there. It’s the location that’s driving that.
RE : So tell us about when you came on board and more about your role, relative to this project and the Logan project, since you joined Advance as predevelopment was progressing.
BB: My primary responsibility will
be to oversee the development and construction and leasing of those two parks. 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. We want it to be known that we’re out there as well
right now.
Advance has been around ... for 40 years and they’re really good at what they do. And we wanted to send the message to the industrial market, which is a niche they’ve definitely been in, but this is a really strong presence for someone who has not always been in the big-box industrial business.
So really that’s what I’m doing for them — I’m the one out seeking those opportunities.
RE : Is it fair to say that you’re not expecting every single opportunity to be 3 or 4 million square feet?
BB: It’s a great way to scale quickly, but opportunities like this don’t present themselves that often. ... You don’t come across that too often, but there are select sites and my team here at Advance has a really unique skillset when it comes to dealing with contaminated sites and brownfield
sites and really creating value through finding the opportunities that not everyone else will chase — and sourcing them through relationships, through a track record of proving that when Advance sets out to do a deal or sets out to entitle and develop on a project, it happens.
RE : And I get that sense you’ll need every bit of a full-service development with all of that expertise in order to continue to find sites in New Jersey.
BB: Those are the sites that are left. And every time you turn around there’s just another site, another area that you thought no one would go to or another location that you thought about at some point, but you looked over. But if you start to look at what the market is doing, the square footage that the market is absorbing, those locations are starting to make a whole lot of sense. RE
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CLOSED

CLOSED

JIM MCGUCKIN l REGIONAL MANAGER l 250 PEHLE AVE #501, SADDLE BROOK, NJ 07663 l PHONE: (201) 742-6150
CLOSED
CLOSED
Real Estate Investment Sales » Financing » Research » Advisory Services
Courtesy: Advance Realty Investors