By Joshua Burd
With modern logistics space still in short supply across the country, northern New Jersey will be among the top three markets this year to expand its stock of industrial buildings.
That’s according to research from Yardi Matrix, as detailed by the blog CommercialCafe. The website noted that, as of late February, industrial property completions nationwide were slated to total 186 million square feet across 672 properties in 2020, up 29 percent from last year.
In North Jersey, Yardi Matrix found that developers would add more than 14.5 million square feet this year, up nearly 10 million square feet from 2019. The growth of 209 percent is among the largest increases in the study, which also noted that the 26 properties expected to be completed will bring the average property size to more than 540,000 square feet.
The Garden State ranked third behind California’s Inland Empire, where Yardi Matrix projects nearly 26 million square feet of new logistics space, and Dallas, where developers are expected to add 23.5 million square feet. Those totals represent increases of 66 percent and 21 percent from 2019, respectively.
The projections come amid a surging demand for modern logistics space and what was one of the longest economic expansions in history, prior to the damage caused by the growing coronavirus pandemic. Production and consumption continued last year, the research service said, with industrial developers adding 144 million square feet across 441 properties.
New Jersey’s largest expected completion this year was slated to come at buildings 3, 5, 6 and 7 of Bridge Development Partners’ Bridge Point 78 project in Phillipsburg and Lopatcong, Yardi Matrix found. The nearly 2.18 million-square-foot delivery will be the country’s fourth-largest this year.
The report’s top five industrial markets for completions, which also include Chicago and Houston, will each add at least 11 million square feet of space in 2020. Notably, Chicago is the only market in the top 10 that will add less square footage than it did in the previous year — about 16 percent less.
