Partnership Will Build 368,000-SF Distribution Center

Whitehall Industrial Properties of Edison, NJ sold the site, which is located near the New Jersey Turnpike, the Garden State Parkway and several other major highways, about five miles west of Manhattan. Financing for the $24 million project is being provided by Sumitomo Bank of New York.

The multi-tenant facility, which will be called the Meadowlands Distribution Center, is expected to be ready by late this year, according to Purinton. The owners are targeting major corporations that need light industrial space with easy access to Manhattan.

"This is one of the very few remaining sites in the Meadowlands with the potential for a sizable distribution facility," according to Scott Coopchik, the New York City-based ORIX senior vice president who is the project executive. "Reflecting the strong demand for large, modern industrial buildings, similar projects in the Meadowlands market have been leased to a diverse group of tenants, including major money center banks, fashion houses and other companies that need immediate access to the New York City market."

The Chicago-based ORIX Real Estate Equities is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of ORIX Corp., a $45 billion international financial services company. ORIX Real Estate Equities, which oversees the parent's real estate assets in the US and Canada, has a portfolio currently valued at $1.5 billion.

RREEF, a division of Deutsche Bank AG, is a real estate investment manager with corporate offices in Chicago, San Francisco and New York. The company, which focuses on industrial, office, apartment and shopping center properties in the country's 50 largest metro areas, has a total of more than $36 billion of assets under management.