Prologis, CenterPoint pay $72M for industrial properties in northern NJ

Area’s industrial vacancy rate is just 2.6 percent

From left: Bob Chapman of CenterPoint and Hamid Moghadam of Prologis (CenterPoint, Prologis, LoopNet)
From left: Bob Chapman of CenterPoint and Hamid Moghadam of Prologis (CenterPoint, Prologis, LoopNet)

New Jersey is known for many things. Tony Soprano. Bruce Springsteen. Political graft. And now, industrial real estate dealmaking.

In the past week, two of the largest institutional industrial buyers closed on two sites in the Garden State, paying a combined $72.2 million.

Bunny Escava and Isaac Setton at Kassin Sabbagh Realty brokered both transactions.

CenterPoint Properties bought a 14-acre industrial site that includes a 198,000-square-foot warehouse on Wheeling Road in Dayton, according to a press release. The deal closed for $43.6 million, according to Escava and Setton.

The property sits near Exit 8A of the New Jersey Turnpike. The warehouse has a clear height of 31 feet and a separate 2-acre parking lot. This is CenterPoint’s third acquisition in the Exit 8A submarket this year where vacancy rates have fallen to about 1 percent, according to CenterPoint.

Elsewhere in Northern New Jersey, Prologis nabbed a​​ 217,356-square-foot, multi-building industrial site for $28.6 million, according to Escava and Setton.

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The Bayonne site spans 7.69 acres and consists of older warehouses, a sign that the buyer intends to redevelop it. The site, at 148 East Fifth Street, was owned by a company tied to Bob Usdin, who oversees Showman Fabricators, which designs custom sets for Broadway and television shows, according to its website.

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Bayonne sits on a peninsula directly across from Newark Liberty International Airport. Developers Lincoln Equities Group and PCCP recently secured a $105 million loan to build a 332,640-square-foot distribution center there.

Northern New Jersey is among the hottest markets for industrial real estate thanks to its proximity to New York City and the turnpike.

The vacancy rate of warehouse and manufacturing space in Northern New Jersey was just 2.6 percent as of the third quarter, according to JLL. Even with about 6.4 million square feet of industrial space under construction, available space is likely to remain limited for some time.