Paul V. Profeta, publisher of Real Estate NJ
Dear Readers,
I cannot tell you how pleased I am that we are able to bring you this magazine focused on New Jersey commercial real estate. I wanted to give Josh Burd, our editor, the opportunity in the first issue to introduce himself to all of you. Now it is time for you to meet the publisher.
New Jersey has had a healthy, vibrant and distinguished real estate business for decades and yet it has gone unheralded. There has been no periodical that I am aware of in recent years that is focused strictly on New Jersey commercial real estate. Real Estate NJ will now fill that void.
We have a host of exceptional and talented developers who have created billions of dollars’ worth of income-producing real estate across our state. Some have been extremely creative. We will now be able to honor them and highlight their achievements. New Jersey, as a real estate market, enjoys several exceptional assets:
- It is the densest state in the country
- We are blessed with several exceptional schools of higher education (Princeton University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Stevens Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, etc.), which leads to a highly educated population
- We have one of the highest levels of income per household in the country. How many towns do you know that support fi ve regional malls while being closed on Sundays?
- We have an exceptional transportation system of highways and mass transit
- We are the capital for the pharmaceutical industry
- We are sandwiched between two massive population centers (New York City and Philadelphia)
Our proximity to these major population centers affords us the opportunity to create warehouses and distribution centers within only an hour’s drive of New York City or Philadelphia. As you all know, rental rates on these assets have increased significantly over the past few years. We are trying to make this publication more than just a listing of recent deals completed. We are trying to present insightful articles into different organizations and explain how they accomplish what they do. We have also tried to make this publication educational. We will have a monthly column from Michael McGuinness of NAIOP New Jersey outlining the latest governmental initiatives affecting real estate. Josh Burd, our editor, of course, will write his own column. We will also have a column from Morris Davis, the chaired professor of real estate at Rutgers. Ben Lee of NK Architects, the new state chapter president of the American Institute of Architects, has provided us a column for this month. Rob Kossar of JLL will share market insights from the JLL research department and we expect to bring you additional contributors. We hope in the future to add a column that will explain the current status of the mortgage market and where it is going. And finally, we are hoping to also have a column on the retail market. In this way, we hope to create a periodical that will not only be informative as to what is happening in New Jersey real estate, but also educational.
We are mailing this to the 10,000 most influential commercial real estate executives in New Jersey. And only New Jersey. I can personally represent the quality and veracity of the mailing list because I built it myself. If you want to get a message to that market, and only that market, you should consider advertising in this periodical. I hope you enjoy this and I look forward to talking to you all about it.
Sincerely,
Paul V. Profeta
