Bridge Development to Bring 358 KSF Warehouse to New Jersey

Bridge Development’s project at 675 Main St. Rendering courtesy of Bridge Development Partners

Bridge Development Partners is transforming a site in Belleville, N.J., into a 358,586-square-foot Class A industrial facility. Construction began in January, with the Meadowlands project slated for completion in the third quarter of 2022.

The developer is aiming to attract e-commerce and other warehouse distribution users to the facility. The property will offer 40-foot clear heights and 58 dock doors in a rear-load configuration, along with parking to accommodate 160 cars and 94 trucks.

Bridge bought the 23.7-acre site last December, assisted by Jerry Putterman of Newmark. Located at 675 Main St., the plot faces State Route 21 and the Passaic River. Interstate 95 is within 4 miles, and downtown Manhattan is 12 miles to the east.

The developer is currently building another industrial project with partner Link Logistics in Lyndhurst, N.J., a company representative told Commercial Property Executive. In October, Bridge sold a four-property, 2.2 million-square-foot industrial portfolio in Phillipsburg, N.J. to PGIM Real Estate. The newly delivered assets traded for a combined $275 million.

Immune to COVID-19?

New Jersey’s industrial market has flourished during the pandemic, closing 2020 with record-setting net absorption as availability dropped to a historic low, according to a fourth-quarter report from CBRE. The Meadowlands submarket was a top performer in terms of new leasing activity for the quarter, with figures peaking at 772,000 square feet.

CommercialEdge’s January national industrial report showed that New Jersey had nearly 6 million square feet underway at the end of December. This accounted for 1.7 percent of completed inventory, 1 full percentage point less than the figure at the national level. Combined with New Jersey’s low vacancy rate of 3.6 percent, this could indicate a need for more inventory in the market.

The same CommercialEdge report indicated that nearly 230 million square feet delivered last year across the country’s major markets, a record high. At the same time, escalating demand for warehouse space pushed national rents to an average of $6.38 per square foot in December, a 4.8 percent year-over-year increase.