300 Ridge Road in Piscataway — Courtesy: Rockefeller Group
By Joshua Burd
Rockefeller Group and a joint venture partner, PCCP LLC, have sold two newly completed buildings in a planned 2.1 million-square-foot logistics park in Piscataway, including a 725,000-square-foot distribution center for Best Buy.
The firms announced Tuesday that they had inked the sale of 300 and 100 Ridge Road, which total more than 1 million square feet, to DWS Group’s real estate platform. The deals, the terms of which were not disclosed, mark the first two sales at the Rockefeller Group Logistics Center off Interstate 287.
“The sale of these completed buildings at Rockefeller Group Logistics Center shows the high level of demand for Class A industrial property in New Jersey,” said Heath Abramsohn, Rockefeller Group’s vice president and regional director for the New Jersey and Pennsylvania region. “DWS is a welcome addition to Rockefeller Group Logistics Park. These two buildings will continue to benefit from strong institutional ownership for years to come.”
The larger building at 300 Ridge Road was fully leased during construction to Best Buy, offering 36-foot clear ceiling heights, 137 cross-docked loading positions and 195-foot truck docks, according to a news release. The second building is a 311,000-square-foot distribution center that is leased by Fujitsu General America Inc. and Humanscale, each occupying about 155,000 square feet.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Gary Gabriel represented the sellers and procured the buyer alongside team members Andrew Merin, David Bernhaut, Brian Whitmer, Kyle Schmidt and Ryan Larkin. C&W industrial brokerage specialists Stan Danzig and Jules Nissim also supported the assignment as exclusive leasing agents for Rockefeller Group Logistics Center.
“There was considerable depth of institutional interest — reflecting a sustained appetite for quality industrial product in New Jersey,” Schmidt said. “Rockefeller Group Logistics Center has validated the 287 corridor investment thesis, with the market emerging as a target for investors and users alike.”
Three remaining buildings totaling more than 1 million square feet are currently under construction on the site, the development and brokerage team said.
“With current activity, we anticipate that this project will be fully leased and built out within 18 months,” Nissim said. “Its success is reflective of Rockefeller Group’s long track record of successful Garden State developments, as well as the shifting market fundamentals that are driving tenants to the 287 market.”
Rockefeller acquired the former brownfield site in 2017 from Lincoln Equities Group LLC and Real Capital Solutions. The $57 million sale came three years after the sellers purchased the site, which housed a former plastics manufacturing plant and was later remediated by Union Carbide Corp., and secured entitlements and a 30-year tax abatement for development.
The developer noted that submarket rents have soared 69 percent over the past five years and currently maintain 0.7 percent vacancy rate, citing C&W research. The Interstate 287 corridor has emerged as a viable alternative to the New Jersey Turnpike, providing developers and tenants with similar access to labor, highway infrastructure and the Port of New York and New Jersey.
Construction begins at 2.2 million sq. ft. industrial development in Piscataway
