GlobeSt.com UPDATE: State Names 17 Sites for Possible Port-Related Redevelopment

The Portfields Initiative is actually a partnership between the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and the Port Authority of NY/NJ. Millions of sf of new industrial space are expected to rise near the North and Central New Jersey waterfront over the next several years. "With our initial findings in place, we have a solid blueprint to advance new development sites and economic opportunities in the port region," Codey said in unveiling the 17 sites targeted for development. "The commercial cargo needs of the region are growing rapidly, and we cannot afford to waste the potential for our port district's success."

The 17 sites total more than 1,500 acres in the cities of Kearny, Newark, Elizabeth, Bayonne, Linden, Carteret, Woodbridge and Perth Amboy. They're strung out between exits 10 and 15W of the New Jersey Turnpike, a distance of about 20 miles. The sites were identified on the basis of location, local government support, sufficient access and utilities, resolvable site development issues and other factors, according to the Portfields Initiative's summary report. Most are near the state's Portway project, a massive region-wide effort to improve transportation and access to the port and related facilities.

The next step will be to identify and help advance the "shovel ready" status of at least a half dozen brownfield and/or underutilized sites, each with the feasible development potential of at least 350,000 sf of distribution space. At the minimum, that would amount to 2.1 million sf of new space.

Considering that Catellus recently announced it would build a 600,000-sf spec building as part of a one-million-sf W/D project adjacent to a couple of the identified sites in Jersey City, the ultimate impact of the measure could be substantially greater. Catellus is also sitting on the largest of the 17 sites, 300 acres straddling the Woodbridge/Carteret border, a tract that the San Francisco-based company plans to develop as Port Reading Business Park.

"It really represents a great decision for the EDA to partner with the Port Authority to get this initiative under way," Tom Sullivan, senior vice president in CB Richard Ellis' East Brunswick office tells GlobeSt.com. CBRE and Welsh Chester Galiney Matone, a Morristown-based consulting appraisal firm, won the contract with the Portfields Initiative partnership to provide the real estate consulting that went into the eventual 280-page report outlining the sites. Besides Sullivan, Rolf Kemen of CBRE's consulting group was involved in the process.

"It was a combination of gathering, confirming and validating the information that the Portfields Initiative partnership had already received from a variety of sources, including developers, landowners, other brokers and regional EDAs," Sullivan explains. "They went right to the private sector to confirm and validate the sites. It's difficult to get on-the-street market knowledge when you're those types of government entities."

For CBRE, involvement in the initiative "shifts back to our basic brokerage work," Sullivan tells GlobeSt.com. "We have several clients we're working with, both on a requirement basis and on a disposition basis."

Individual developers also stand to gain state help in getting their projects done. "The assistance we are providing to developers and communities in the port region is multi-faceted," says Caren S. Franzini, CEO of the New Jersey EDA. "We are committed to helping developers who are advancing projects on currently identified sites, and for additional Portfield sites identified in the future."