PGIM Real Estate, the asset management arm of Prudential Financial, is part of a joint venture that purchased Garden State Logistics Park, a 282-acre industrial site by the Delaware Memorial Bridge in Pennsville.
Newark-based PGIM combined with California-based CT Realty to buy the property, which will be developed into a 1.7 million-square-foot logistics park, featuring two warehouses: one that will be approximately 1.2 million square feet and another that will be approximately 500,000 square feet.
Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
The buildings, which already are under construction, will have 40-foot ceilings. They are expected to be ready in the fall of 2023.
The project was approved for a New Jersey PILOT agreement (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes) in 2021, a tax incentive that spurs development and employment, and one that reduces the occupancy cost for new users.
The Salem County property, which is about a half-mile from the bridge, is on the site of a former power plant, North Broadway. And, while the site has a number of environmental challenges, it clearly is a key area for e-commerce distribution.
Rob Huthnance, who heads development on the East Coast for the Newport Beach-based CT Realty, said the opportunity to obtain such a large park was too good to pass up.
“This is an exceptionally rare opportunity to assemble a critical mass of land and create a top-flight logistics project in the second-largest industrial market in the country,” Huthnance said.
“This project is at the gateway to southern New Jersey and will serve as a distribution hub for the entire Northeast, able to serve 66 million consumers in a single day’s truck drive.”
Huthnance said the existence of a PILOT helps tremendously, too.
“In an ultra-tight industrial market marked by upward pressure on rents, the PILOT designation produces a meaningful cost savings for large tenants,” he said. “The ability to deliver this tax benefit in brand new building designs with cutting-edge functionality presents a compelling case for this project.”
CBRE’s Brian Fuimara brokered the sale — and CBRE will market the property going forward.
CT and PGIM purchased the plot from the Deepwater Investment Group, an affiliate of the Pennsylvania-based D2 Organization.
Real Estate NJ was the first to report the story.