First Industrial Gets Approvals for 250,000 SF

The development timeline is based on getting tenants for the space, with First Industrial planning to do it as a build-to-suit. To accomplish that, the developer has signed up broker Karen Iman of Trammell Crow Co., Princeton, NJ, to market the project.

"We will be able to accommodate lab users or single-story tenants looking for class A product," senior development officer John F. Kieser tells GlobeSt.com exclusively. "We are very flexible. The buildings can have common lobbies or individual tenant access, and we have the ability through a modified approval process to combine all of these buildings into a single facility for a tenant looking for a corporate headquarters or similar location," continues Kieser, who's based in First Industrial's Montville, NJ office.

"We plan to maximize the value of this site for our shareholders," adds Jojo Yap CIO for First Industrial. "If necessary, we will sell this site to an office developer or corporate user. By having the entitlements – site plans, building permits, etc. – approved, we have made this site more valuable to an office developer or corporate user because we've significantly removed the cost and time associated with obtaining entitlements.

"Of course, we're making this site available to our IIS customers as part of our comprehensive offering," according to Yap.

First Industrial got the necessary approvals after a year-and-half effort. "We've secured the most difficult approvals, and we can modify the specifics going forward based on the tenant," according to Kieser. "The approval process was a collaborative effort where everybody really worked together to come up with something that would suit all parties."

The buildings will have a VAV air conditioning system, high-speed Internet access and cable capability. The site is adjacent to a four-building, 110,000-sf, multi-tenant industrial campus that First Industrial also owns. Also adjacent is the Bristol-Myers Squibb/RCN site, where up to 1.5 million sf will eventually be built.

"We feel that this project will support that development and provide a tenant with good transportation access and the ability to adapt to their needs," Kieser concludes.