The Kingsland Meadowlands project in Lyndhurst, Rutherford and North Arlington is slated to bring some 3 million square feet of industrial space to a site at the junction of Route 3 and the New Jersey Turnpike. — Rendering courtesy: Russo Development/Forsgate Industrial Partners
By Joshua Burd
The parent of T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods and Marshalls has leased nearly 1.3 million square feet of industrial space in the Meadowlands, marking the first deal at a massive campus being built by Russo Development and Forsgate Industrial Partners.
The transaction by TJX Cos., noted in a market report by NAI James E. Hanson, spans two buildings at a property that sits at the junction of Route 3 and the New Jersey Turnpike. And it places the off-price retailer roughly five miles from the Lincoln Tunnel, reflecting the appeal of the 718-acre site in Lyndhurst, Rutherford and North Arlington that was long seen as a potential logistics hub before Russo and Forsgate broke ground in fall 2019.
CoStar News first reported the deal at 3000 Valley Brook Ave., part of the Kingsland Meadowlands project. A representative for the developers, which are both based in Bergen County, declined to comment earlier this week.
According to the website for Kingsland Meadowlands, buildings A and B will span 932,168 and 344,110 square feet, respectively. Both are listed as under construction as part of a first phase, offering 40-foot clear ceiling heights, a combined 207 dock doors, a total of 417 trailers stalls and parking for 770 cars, not including excess parking that’s available.
The website lists JLL’s Rob Kossar, David Knee, Chris Hile and Leslie Lanne as the project’s leasing team, touting the site’s easy access to roughly 18 million people that live within the metropolitan statistical area. Some 10.6 million people live within 10 miles, the project brochure said, while citing a labor force of more than 5 million within 15 miles.
Forsgate and Russo said as much when they broke ground on what’s been billed as a 3 million-square-foot project. The respected multigenerational developers positioned themselves to develop the former Kingsland landfill site in June 2015, winning a competitive bidding process that gave way to four years of entitlements, engineering and master planning in conjunction with the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority.
Officials noted at the time that the long-blighted site was once slated for the infamous EnCap project, a golf and residential development that collapsed in 2008 under a prior builder. The NJSEA’s predecessor, the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, subsequently completed a portion of an environmental cleanup program and offered the site for sale.
The NAI Hanson market report listed the TJX deal as its top notable lease of the fourth quarter, capping a year that saw more than 22.5 million square feet of industrial leasing in northern and central New Jersey. Vacancy in the region was 4.7 percent at the end of Q4, the report said, while average asking rent settled at $13.94 per square foot.
Russo, Forsgate break ground on massive Meadowlands logistics park
