Rockefeller Group Buys N.J. Industrial Site for $225 Million Project
July 02 2017 - 3:01PM
Dow Jones News
By Keiko Morris
The Rockefeller Group has acquired a 228-acre site in
Piscataway, N.J., where it plans to build a 2.2 million-square-foot
logistics center and cater to a booming e-commerce-fueled
industrial real-estate market.
Last month, the developer purchased the former Dow Chemical Co.
site for $57 million from a partnership of Lincoln Equities Group
LLC and Real Capital Solutions, said Clark Machemer,
regional-development officer for the Rockefeller Group's New Jersey
and Pennsylvania operations.
The previous owner had secured initial site-plan approval to
develop the property at 171 River Road as an industrial park, Mr.
Machemer said.
Rockefeller's six-building project is in an area along the
Interstate 287 corridor just west of the New Jersey Turnpike.
Industrial development has been increasing, replacing decades-old
structures around I-287, as land along the New Jersey Turnpike in
northern and central New Jersey is gobbled up by e-commerce
demand.
Later this summer, Rockefeller plans to break ground on two
buildings -- one with 800,000 square feet of space, and the other
with 300,000 square feet. The overall project is expected to cost
between $225 and $250 million.
"There is quickly diminishing land along the turnpike corridor,"
Mr. Machemer said. "That leads you to 287, the only other
interstate that really is supportive of modern-day logistical
warehouses."
Lincoln Equities and Real Capital bought the site for $13
million in May of 2014 and negotiated development approvals with
Piscataway officials, as well as a 20-year program for payments in
lieu of taxes, said Joel Bergstein, president of Lincoln
Equities.
Dow Chemical stopped operations on the property years ago, Mr.
Bergstein said. Plastics such as Bakelite had been produced there,
he noted, and Dow, Lincoln Equities and Real Capital have done
cleanup work at the site.
The sellers had intended to develop the land themselves, but
those plans shifted as New Jersey's industrial market continued its
hot streak of rising rents and tenants' growing appetite for
space.
"The market improved even beyond what we had anticipated," Mr.
Bergstein said. "We thought it was an opportune time to exit."
Write to Keiko Morris at Keiko.Morris@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 02, 2017 14:46 ET (18:46 GMT)
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