"The company wanted its new location to be a modern facility with high ceilings, adequate loading, good access to major roadways and proximity to its headquarters," says Noah Balanoff of Cushman & Wakefield's East Rutherford office, who represented McCollister's, along with team members Stan Danzig and Jules Nissim. Brian Hilger of Cushman & Wakefield's Philadelphia office also assisted with the site search, which spanned the New Jersey Turnpike corridor north from Exit 7A down to southern New Jersey.
"Central Crossings fit McCollister's needs perfectly--its quality and flexibility truly sets it apart," Balanoff adds. "KOR was aggressive with the deal terms and was able to deliver the space to McCollister's with its required tenant improvements on an expedited basis." Balanoff, Danzig and Nissim also serve as exclusive leasing agents for Central Crossings, with Steve Tolkach of Newmark Knight Frank in Princeton.
Located in the heart of the New Jersey Turnpike Exit 7 submarket, Central Crossings Business Park has been successful in drawing smaller industrial users. McCollister's co-tenants include Blue Tulip, Garden State Portable Storage (PODS) and Frank Wood Transportation. The largest of those commitments totals 47,800 square feet.
Central Crossings' tenant mix may be due in large part to the strength of New Jersey's port and airport submarkets, which, according to Colliers Houston & Co.'s senior vice president Tom Monahan in the company's Fourth Quarter Trendsletter, "has allowed the state's industrial market to continue to perform and hold relatively steady despite the market's heavy concentration on the distribution of consumer goods." The report goes on to note that while Central New Jersey's industrial vacancy rate did increase from 8.2% to 8.9% at the close of the third quarter, it has not surpassed 2007's year-end high rates of 9%.
While the industrial market is certainly not immune to the current low levels of demand, long-term growth may get a boost from globalization, according to a recent report from Torto Wheaton Research. "Given the increases in globalization and the long-term trend in trade that will represent a growing share of GDP over the next 10 years, it is entirely possible that growth in warehouse demand will outpace domestic economic output growth," says report author and Torto Wheaton managing economist Laura Stone Mortimer. "As such, our demand forecasts are slightly more optimistic over the longer term once the economy enters its recovery phase."
KOR, meanwhile, is going full steam ahead with expansion plans for Central Crossings, having recently completed a 120,000-square-foot spec building. Last month, Genesis Logistics leased 60,000 square feet to occupy half of that structure. The class A building features a hybrid design that can satisfy diverse, flexible build-outs combining warehouse, manufacturing and office space in as little as 9,500 square feet. Currently, C&W is marketing its remaining 60,000 square feet. KOR has full approvals and site work completed for a twin, 120,000-square-foot building next door.
The 170-acre campus includes 2.3 million square feet of total development potential. KOR has finished site work for one additional building pad, and Rockefeller Group Development Corporation and IDI acquired a final parcel, approved for 1.2 million square feet. KOR also has approvals in place for the project's Phase II, which will include two more buildings of 504,000 square feet and 136,000 square feet.
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