GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Matrix Nets 1.3M-SF Management Assignment

"Our two organizations have built an excellent working relationship over the past few years, and we look forward to expanding on this platform in the future," says Patrick Connelly, Matrix's asset management director. "The assignment is part of our company's expanding niche as a third-party manager of industrial space."

The AMB portfolio assignment, which increases Matrix's third-party management responsibilities up to the 5.2 million-sf mark, is made up of a total of five separate buildings. The largest is the 419,000-sf 60 Tower Road in South Brunswick, NJ, a fully leased multi-tenant building. In Monroe, NJ, meanwhile, the 218,000-sf 2 South Middlesex Ave. is fully leased to American Logistics.

The other three buildings, all in South Brunswick, include the 167,900-sf 20 Tower Road, which is 100% leased to C&S Wholesale Grocers, and 130 Docks Corner Rd., a 212,335-sf facility fully leased to Home Depot. The only one of the five assets with a substantial amount of space currently vacant is the 235,000-sf 30 Tower Road, which has just under 200,000 sf available.

Matrix, of course, has been a dominant player in its own right in the Exit 8A market, where it has signed leases for more than 2.5 million sf of industrial space, mostly warehousing and distribution, in the past 24 months alone. Just in the last few weeks, the company has signed build-to-suit deals with pet supplies retailer Petco, 307,000 sf; and industrial products supplier W.W. Grainger, 436,000 sf (see earlier stories).

The company has, in recent years, done similar build-to-suits with Sony, Lenox, the Associated Press, Seaman's Furniture and the US Post Office, as well as an earlier project for Grainger. Matrix is also active in the office, residential, golf, hospitality and urban development market sectors.

For its part, the San Francisco-based AMB Property Corp. has a national portfolio of close to 97 million sf. The company's East Coast division is based in Boston.