Users in New Jersey’s booming industrial sector have faced a severe lack of supply in recent years, leading to unprecedented rent growth and an unabated race to find development sites. New space is on the way — and plenty of it — with millions of square feet slated to come online in the next two years. Yet market experts say demand will continue to outpace supply, given the continued upside of e-commerce and a race by traditional retailers to update their supply chains.
New Jersey industrial brokers, developers thinking regionally as tenants expand the market
With a limited supply and an increasingly savvy approach to logistics, tenants are pushing the historical boundaries of the New Jersey industrial market and expanding not only westward, but to the southernmost parts of the state and to the east to New York City. As occupiers explore these new frontiers, developers and brokers in New Jersey are following suit with a more regional approach to the warehouse and distribution sector.
Redrawing the map for industrial
As you’ll find out in this month’s cover story, developers and brokers that have long focused on New Jersey are now stretching beyond the traditional boundaries of the state’s industrial market. And they are stretching them in every direction — for different reasons — in their quest to keep pace with tenants that are adopting a more regional approach.
All hands on deck: How Newark’s bid for Amazon HQ2 rallied landlords, city officials
While there are still months to go before Amazon reveals it selection for its HQ2 project, making the pitch has rallied developers and public-sector leaders in Newark in a way that the city hasn’t seen in recent memory. That show of unity was only amplified on Oct. 16, when Gov. Chris Christie announced that the state would officially support the city’s bid, even as several other cities in New Jersey jockeyed for the project.
Game-changer: Amazon has been a driving force in surging N.J. distribution market
There’s no ignoring Amazon’s impact on the state’s industrial sector since early 2013, when the company committed to building its first New Jersey fulfillment center in Robbinsville. Not only has Amazon absorbed at least roughly 9 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space since that time. It quickly emboldened other pure e-commerce players that were hesitant to establish a footprint in New Jersey, amid concerns over having to collect sales tax from customers if they had a physical location here.
