CRANBURY, NJ—A joint venture partnership of The Rockefeller Group and Alfieri is moving ahead with one of the largest industrial real estate developments in New Jersey and has named Cushman & Wakefield as leasing agent for the project. Located in the Exit 8A submarket, Cranbury Station Park will have up to 1.24 million square feet of Class A warehouse/distribution space.

"I think what's great about New Jersey is that a high percentage of the warehouse space, approaching 95 percent, is leased," Clark Machemer, senior vice president and regional development officer for The Rockefeller Group's New Jersey/Pennsylvania office tells GlobeSt.com exclusively. "We're not looking at large vacancies in the industrial market, and I would say that over the past 10-15 years there are subtle changes in the design of these buildings that gravitate to the users out there."

In the late 1980s through the 1990s, Machemer says, "you were building maybe upwards of 300,000 square feet, and that was a big industrial building." After the 1990s, industrial properties surpassed the 300,000 square foot mark, as companies adopted newer logistics models.

"I think you're seeing a change right now in these buildings, not necessarily in the size, but how the operations are done," he says. "How people are purchasing, acquiring and shipping goods to individuals and businesses is changing dramatically, and that's what this building is designed for, those future-looking companies."

The developers broke ground in May 2015 on the 930,000-square-foot, 40-foot clear speculative building, which will anchor the 120-acre site on Cranbury Station Road. The entire parcel is eligible for Foreign Trade Zone designation. Construction should be completed in the first quarter of 2016.

No occupants are lined up yet for the facility, but Machemer says Rockefeller Group is "in discussions with a number of potential tenants."

The building is designed to accommodate the trend to include more office workers co-located with warehouse space, which leads to a higher demand for car parking than a traditional warehouse, and higher trailer demand, Machemer says.

"We are very pleased to partner with Alfieri on what will be a state-of-the-art distribution facility in one of the strongest industrial property markets in the nation," Machemer says. "The demand-side fundamentals are extremely strong in the Exit 8A submarket, and there are no other existing opportunities to lease a space of this size in the state, so we're expecting strong interest ahead of completion."

In addition to the "next generation" 40-foot clear ceiling height, the building plan incorporates a solar-ready roof, cross-dock loading with the ability to create loading on a third side, and a loop road surrounding the entire building to maximize circulation. Designed to LEED Silver specifications, it features an emphasis on sustainability and cost-saving efficiencies. The building will be delivered by year-end 2015. A second building of up to 310,000 square feet will be constructed upon the completion and initial lease-up of the first. Alternatively, that second pad site could accommodate excess trailer and car parking.

"We are excited to partner with The Rockefeller Group on this industrial project and look forward to bringing this sophisticated and unique product to market," says Michael Alfieri, president of Alfieri. "We have had significant interest in the building from a variety of industries, but the 40-foot clear height is particularly attractive to e-commerce tenants who would use the additional height for as many as three mezzanine levels."

New Jersey's Exit 8A submarket houses distribution facilities for some of the world's most recognizable brands, including Pearson Education, The Home Depot, ConAgra, Crate & Barrel, FedEx, Costco, Williams Sonoma, Staples, Kellogg's, Petco, Volkswagen, Ford, LG Electronics and L'Oreal, among many others.

"Exit 8A ranks among the nation's top industrial hubs, offering a location mid-way along the Boston-to-Washington, D.C., corridor and access to one-third of the nation's population within a one-day drive," says Cushman & Wakefield's Stan Danzig, who is heading the leasing agency assignment with Jules Nissim and Stephen Elman. "Within that context, Cranbury Station Park is being developed on one of the submarket's last remaining large-block parcels. With such established and well-respected developers at the helm, this high-profile project is well positioned for rapid success."

Industrial property in the region is within the New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area, which is the largest in the country according to the U.S. Census Bureau, with a population of more than 23 million people. In addition, the location provides easy access to the NJ Turnpike / I-95, offering North-South access along the East Coast, and is roughly 30 miles from the Port of NY/NJ, which has one of the highest volumes in the nation for container shipping.

You can hear an extended audio interview with Machemer and Alfieri in the player below.