BAYONNE, NJ-Despite concerns about high tolls and traffic taking away business from New Jersey to Eastern Pennsylvania, Norfolk and Halifax, industry officials are saying “fuggedaboutit.” Michael McGuinness, executive director of NAIOP, tells GlobeSt.com that Garden State’s industrial sector will be a force to be reckoned with once the raising of the Bayonne Bridge is complete.

“We have far more warehouse and distribution facilities and potential facilities far closer to the port than the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania,” McGuinness says. “Someone can make the argument that there are no tolls to go to Pennsylvania, but guess what, it is about two or three times the distance,” he adds, noting that tenants are more likely to stay close to New Jersey given rising gas prices, proximity to the waterfront and shorter driving distances.

The Bayonne Bridge project, to be completed in 2014, involves the raising of the roadbed of the bridge by more than 60 feet above the Kill van Kull between New Jersey and Staten Island. While construction and engineering work has already begun on the bridge, the completion of the $1 billion project by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is contingent upon the port’s fare and toll increase plan that was recently enacted to help cover cost overruns and budget deficits.