The owner of the site is a California-based private partnership that was not identified. LPC's task is to develop a 300,000-sf industrial building at 700 Railroad Ave. on a speculative basis. The project also calls for an existing building, totaling approximately 135,000 sf, to be expanded by another 50,000 sf as part of the overall site plan.

"All of the site plan approvals are nearly complete," says Michael Taylor, senior vice president of LPC. The Dallas-based company has New Jersey offices in Edison and Parsippany.

"We expect to break ground later this year," Taylor says. "Once completed, the new warehouse will be a state-of-the-art high-bay building that we expect to attract tenants from both Central New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania."

The attraction is expected to be the fact that the further south one proceeds along the Turnpike, the lower the costs of occupancy. Much of the activity to date has been in Central New Jersey, between Exits 7 and 8A, as well as at the extreme northern end of the highway, in the Meadowlands region. More recently, activity has perked up between Exits 12 and 14, a region that has close proximity to the Port of Newark and Elizabeth. That region has attracted such out-of-state developers as the Catellus and Panattoni organizations, both from California.

For LPC's project, the township has also approved an upgrade to Railroad Avenue, which provides access to the site. Work is expected to begin shortly on the upgrade, and will be completed late this year, according to Taylor.