In what is the largest land-acquisition transaction in South Jersey in years, the pick-up represents DP's largest park in the country, its fourth in the Mid-Atlantic region and first in New Jersey, according to Aaron H. Paris, the company's EVP and COO. The park's existing two million sf of space will be built out by an additional 5.5 million sf of W/D, manufacturing, R&D, office and flex space. The selling price was not disclosed.

"We are changing the name of this well-established park to LogistiCenter at Logan to reflect our national LogistiCenter brand," Paris says. "All of our LogistiCenters in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Nevada are master-planned class A parks for corporate distribution operations and third-party logistics firms."

DP Partners bought the property from the New Castle, DE-based Harvey Development Co., which was represented in the transaction by William A. Goodwin and Michael Hines, both SVPs in the Philadelphia office of CB Richard Ellis. Harvey had bought it from the Dallas-based Crow Holdings in 2003 for a reported $50 million, and Crow in turn had acquired the site in 1996 from Shell Oil.

Cardinal Health Co., a pharmaceutical distributor based in Dublin, OH, was the park's first tenant, breaking ground nearly three years ago for a 200,000-sf facility on 20 acres. Cardinal has since been joined on-site by McKesson Medical Surgical Inc., Linens 'n Things, Tech Data Corp. and LaBrea Bakery.

The new owner is also set to start work on a 360,000-sf spec distribution center, according to Paris, with delivery anticipated for the spring of 2006. Overall development will consist of a variety of single-tenant and multi-tenant facilities ranging from 45,000 sf (divisible to 5,000 sf) to 1.2 million sf. The site plan also calls for 10 acres set aside for retail development, and 400 acres will remain undeveloped as designated wetlands by the New Jersey DEP and the US Army Corps of Engineers.

"We are committed to growing with the Mid-Atlantic region," Paris says. "In addition to our current 8.6 million-sf development potential in the market, we have more than 2.4 million sf fully leased and an additional 1.2 million sf under construction. And we're looking for new opportunities in the region." DP Partners entered the Mid-Atlantic region in 1997 with the acquisition of 40 acres of land in Chambersburg, PA for a 414,000-sf build-to-suit for OHL Logistics.