9000 River Road in Pennsauken — Courtesy: Velocity Venture Partners
By Joshua Burd
Velocity Venture Partners has all but leased up a major industrial building in Pennsauken after securing a 155,000-square-foot deal with a maker of sustainable shipping products.
According to the landlord, the 10-year lease by Ambiont Biopallets brings 9000 River Road to 98 percent occupancy. That follows a nationwide search by the Philadelphia-based tenant, which was seeking a domestic manufacturing hub to better serve its American customers, one that brought it to the historic Pennsauken property that served for decades as the headquarters of Aluminum Shapes.
The transaction also marks the culmination of Velocity’s vision to transform the site — once the largest one-stop aluminum extrusion operation east of the Mississippi — into a thriving, fully leased manufacturing hub. That began in 2019 when the Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania-based firm acquired an adjacent building at 8600 River Road from Aluminum Shapes and continued in 2022, when it purchased 9000 River Road in a bankruptcy auction, beating out roughly 15 bidders including equipment liquidators and real estate developers.
“The Ambiont transaction reflects a broader trend of domestic manufacturing expansion as logistics and supply chain companies move operations closer to U.S. customers,” Velocity wrote in a news release. “9000 River Road is ideally positioned just east of Philadelphia across the Delaware River, situated between the Betsy Ross and Tacony-Palmyra bridges, providing convenient access to major Mid-Atlantic transportation corridors.”
Ambiont Biopallets makes boxes, containers, pallets and other logistics products using sustainable, alternative materials, according to a news release. It now plans to be operational by year-end while bringing between 150 and 230 jobs to the region, Velocity said, noting that the user was drawn to the site’s infrastructure, robust 50,000-amp power supply, 12-inch-thick concrete floors, facility-wide cranes and access to a deep regional labor pool.
The manufacturer’s business model also emphasizes opportunities to revitalize long-idled industrial sites in communities already accustomed to manufacturing activity and heavy truck traffic, the news release said. Built in stages from the 1950s through the 1990s, the former Aluminum Shapes complex employed as many as 3,000 workers at its peak, but the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2021 after a series of ownership changes.
Rather than liquidating existing manufacturing equipment, Velocity backfilled the facility with tenants that could immediately put it to use, driving a quick revitalization of the complex with users including:
- Western Extrusions, the largest privately held aluminum extruder in North America, which signed a 213,000-square-foot lease in April 2022, allowing it to use the existing aluminum extrusion presses and cast house
- Almag Aluminum, which took 163,000 square feet lease in June 2022, using the extrusion presses and anodizing line
- Western Extrusions, which in October 2024 extended its lease by an additional 10 years and acquired a significant minority interest in VV9000 LLC, the special purpose entity owning the real estate, before later expanding by 35,000 square feet to bring its total footprint to 248,000 square feet
Velocity has just 10,000 square feet remaining at the building along with 280,000 square feet next door at 8600 River Road, part of a broader Northeast industrial portfolio of more than 8.5 million square feet.
