A rendering of Prologis Burlington 130, a planned 913,466-square-foot project being developed by Prologis at 1800 Route 130 North in Burlington — Courtesy: Prologis
By Joshua Burd
Prologis will soon deliver nearly 1 million square feet of new industrial space in Burlington, seeking to tap into the demand from large users in a state with a still-limited supply of modern logistics buildings.
Company executives say the 913,466-square-foot project, located at 1800 Route 130 North, will be the only industrial building of more than 665,000 square feet that will be delivered along the New Jersey Turnpike corridor in 2019. That is likely to catch the eye of users across the state, especially those considering the increasingly popular Exit 6 submarket.
“There are no large bulk Class A availabilities in New Jersey, so we think we’re poised to take advantage of the limited supply that’s forecasted to be delivered in 2019,” said Jesse Harty, Prologis’ senior vice president and market officer for New Jersey and New York. “We do expect there to be more deliveries in late 2020 and 2021, but we think we’re perfectly poised to fit into that limited supply of construction.”
With delivery slated for late August, the new facility will feature 40-foot-clear ceiling heights, 241 trailer parking stalls and 635 spaces for cars. Plans also call for 54-foot-by-50-foot column spacing, 179 dock doors and four drive-in doors.
The development site, which Prologis gained in last year’s acquisition of DCT Industrial Trust, also includes the capacity for a companion building of 150,650 square feet. Harty said the company is holding off on breaking ground until the larger building is leased, noting that the smaller parcel provides additional land for a tenant or could ultimately become a specialty building.
“It’s so hard to find a site that will accommodate a million square feet these days, so if you can build a million square feet, there’s definitely demand for it,” Harty said. He added: “And we didn’t sacrifice any functionality in the building. We kept great trailer parking numbers and great auto parks, so we were able to maximize the site and keep the functionality.”
Along with Harty, the project team includes Bill Bumber, senior vice president and investment officer for New Jersey with Prologis, along with a JLL leasing team that includes Executive Managing Director Paul Torosian, Senior Managing Director Nate Demetsky, Senior Vice President Dean Torosian and Associate Matt Kemery.
Industrial users have found the submarket increasingly attractive in recent years, thanks in part to the recent widening of the Turnpike between exits 6 and 9. Harty noted that the Prologis Burlington 130 complex is at the nexus of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania turnpikes, highlighting one of the strengths of Burlington and adjacent towns.
He added that the project, known as Prologis Burlington 130, will also yield “significant gross rental savings … compared to the projects further north that are going to be delivered in 2020.” Meantime, the surrounding area offers a strong pool of available labor and mass transit options such as NJ Transit’s River Line, which connects Trenton to Camden.
“That puts this location among the best locations for warehouse employers in central New Jersey,” he said.
Burlington County, which has about 3.3 percent vacancy across all classes of industrial space, has attracted large users such as Grainger, H&M and Destination Maternity. Several of those users have validated the submarket’s appeal as a regional distribution hub that can service both New York City and Philadelphia, among other locations.
“In the way of validation, those are some of the names that we think of when we talk about how this market has been checked off as being viable by some of the biggest and most sophisticated users,” Demetsky said.
He added that Exit 6 has emerged as a viable alternative to those seeking space in traditional submarkets such as 8A. Developers, brokers and tenants have adjusted and now consider locales such as Burlington to be part of the central New Jersey industrial market.
“We see a lot more synergies when we’re looking at requirements that are considering 8A. Many of the deals down there … that landed in Burlington wanted to be at Exit 8A,” Demetsky said. He later added: “We no longer consider Burlington County to be Southern Jersey.”
