In order to keep business from leaving New Jersey and New York, NAIOP and its members remain supportive of the Bayonne Bridge being raised on-time in order to allow large, post-Panamax vessels to utilize the region’s ports. “If you can fit double the cargo on one ship, there’s an incremental fuel savings, a labor savings and there’s an overall shipping cost savings,” says Joshua Adler, a partner at Adler Development of Edison, NJ. “With the lower cost of shipping the goods, a merchant will be able to price those goods less expensively. We need to be able to get those ships into our ports,” he adds, noting that if goods are shipped to other parts of the country, the shipments eventually come back to New York and New Jersey due to the population density here.

According to a study from the New York Shippers Association, about 35% of the population is served by the Port of New York and New Jersey, a number that McGuinness says is a third of the US population. “Because we have a large portion of the population living in the metro area, the cost to consumers of those goods would be far less expensive if they came in through the port of New York and New Jersey, as opposed to it coming in through Halifax or Norfolk,” he says.

McGuinness says the state currently has approximately 21 underutilized warehouse and distribution facilities over one million square feet that are ready for immediate occupancy. “The vacancy rates are high,” he says, noting that rates range from 11% in the Meadowlands area and as high as 15% to 16% in central Jersey 8A corridor.

“There is a lot of space to handle more cargo,” he says. “We have ready-to-go facilities that the shippers can utilize as soon as these larger ships come into port, provided that the Bayonne Bridge is completed on-time, meaning that we don’t lose business to Port of Norfolk or Halifax.”

But things are looking up. According to mid-year data from Cushman & Wakefield’s East Rutherford office, industrial sale and leasing velocity has become “robust” and is predicted to remain as such, with 11.1 million square feet of new leasing activity recorded during the first half of the year. C&W says average asking rents held steady at $5.62 per square foot, but given the continued upswing in the market, the opportunity for tenants to take advantage of lower rents “is waning.”

In addition, data from the Port Authority shows a year-over-year increase in container imports up by 9.4%. And earlier in 2011, Port Newark received a $500 million upgrade, which is near the bridge. “New Jersey is going to benefit hugely from this project being completed,” McGuinness says. “It’s one of the few things New Jersey has going for it now: it’s our port and logistics industry.”