Brookfield Expands New Jersey Footprint

Brookfield Properties’ four new additions in Northern New Jersey. Image courtesy of Brookfield Properties

Brookfield Properties has closed on the acquisition of the Liberty Commerce Center development site in Jersey City, N.J., the latest move in a string of land purchases totaling 58 acres in Northern New Jersey. Plans call for the construction of nearly 1 million square feet of Class A distribution space across four projects.

Situated at 84 Harbor Drive, Liberty Commerce Center will be the largest of the new developments. The 20.5-acre site is just 1 mile from the Port Jersey and the Global Container Terminal Bayonne and roughly 8 miles from Port Newark-Elizabeth.

The development will consist of a 414,368-square-foot distribution facility with 42-foot clear heights. Construction on Liberty Commerce Center is slated to start in the first quarter of next year, with delivery by the second quarter of 2025.

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A similar-size site with a different development plan is Elizabeth Metropolitan Logistics Center, at 891 Newark Ave. in Elizabeth, N.J. The 20-acre parcel is off Exit 13A of Interstate 78, less than 4 miles from Newark Liberty International Airport and 6 miles from Port Newark-Elizabeth.

Construction is scheduled to begin in the third quarter. On completion, the project will encompass two LEED-certified distribution facilities with 40-foot clear heights, totaling 299,700 square feet.

Brookfield notes that Port Newark-Elizabeth has seen a 30 percent increase in container volume compared to pre-COVID levels, from 7.5 million to 10 million TEUs per year, as a result of shippers diversifying their ports of entry on the East Coast.

The two smaller development projects are the 9.4-acre Montrose 287 Logistics Center, at 800 Montrose Ave. in South Plainfield, N.J., (a 112,191-square-foot distribution facility with 36-foot clear heights) and the 8.3-acre Union Distribution Center, at 901 Lehigh Ave. in Union, N.J., (a 151,923-square-foot Class A distribution facility featuring 36-foot clear heights).

Record New Jersey industrial construction

Statewide, New Jersey’s industrial space market is seeing a record amount of construction activity, 28.7 million square feet, according to a fourth-quarter report from JLL.

The Northern New Jersey warehouse/distribution space market has a 5.7 percent total availability on an inventory of 272.6 million square feet. Absorption for 2022 was nearly 4.6 million square feet, which was almost exactly the total delivered in the region last year.

A further 9 million square feet was under construction in Northern New Jersey as of year-end, JLL reported. The average asking rent was $20.38.

One indicator of the distribution sector’s activity is the very recent prelease signed by third-party logistics provider CODA Logistics and Distribution for CenterPoint Properties’ 321,765-square-foot Class A industrial development in Linden, N.J. The project, at 1501 W. Edgar Road, is expected to be completed in August.