Jones Lang LaSalle


Warehouses begin to transform brownfield site
Home News Tribune Online 03/10/06
By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER
STAFF WRITER
abecker@thnt.com

WOODBRIDGE — Plans for a multimillion-square-foot warehouse complex on the Port Reading/Carteret boundary are moving forward, with one warehouse already on the market in Carteret and eight more planned in Port Reading.

The project would transform a now-vacant brownfield site into a major warehouse-distribution complex and extend Carteret's Industrial Avenue into Woodbridge, allowing truck traffic from the New Jersey Turnpike to bypass local roads.

Last month, the Woodbridge Planning Board granted final site-plan approval to build 3.2 million-square-feet of warehouse space on the site.

The plans include eight warehouse-style buildings on the Port Reading side of the 290-acre tract.

The company is hoping to begin construction on three buildings there by the end of the year, said Kevin Matzke, a senior vice president for ProLogis, the parent company of the site's owner, Port Reading Woodbridge LLC.

ProLogis acquired the site after merging with the company that previously owned it, Catellus Development Corp., last year.

The former brownfield site in Port Reading is undergoing remediation work to prepare it for building, Matzke said.

The Industrial Road extension could be completed by the end of the year and open in the second quarter of 2007, Matzke said.

On the Carteret side, meanwhile, a 360,000-square-foot warehouse-distribution facility has already been completed and remains on the market for potential tenants. Matzke said the company hopes to have a tenant by the end of the year.

The development is taking place on land previously owned by Public Service Electric & Gas in Woodbridge and StayFlex in Carteret.

Arielle Levin Becker:
(732) 565-7205;
abecker@thnt.com