Expansion of port, canal boosts outlook for Newark

The port of Newark
The port of Newark

An expansion of the port of Newark, N.J., and another expansion half a world away have conspired to boost development in the Newark region, the New York Times reported.

The port, which is in the midst of a $650 million upgrade, and the Panama Canal, which will be upgraded by 2015 to allow much larger ships, mean that the demand for industrial space in Newark is rising — at least that’s what developers are betting on. Spaces to house the additional goods that will be moved through Newark are rising throughout the once-troubled city, the Times said.

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As The Real Deal reported last month, Morris Companies, a New Jersey-based developer, broke ground in July on a $50 million warehouse in Newark, without a committed tenant.

“Anybody that’s in the industrial sector is probably in a good mood because they’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” Michael McGuinness, head of the New Jersey chapter of the NAIOP, a commercial real estate trade group, told the Times. [NYT] — Guelda Voien