Matrix Readies 400,000-SF Industrial Building

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ-Matrix Development Group is set to start work on a 400,000-sf industrial building on a speculative basis, according to company officials. The plans come in the wake of the recent acquisition of the 27-acre site at 65 Stults Rd. within the New Jersey Turnpike Exit 8A submarket.

Details of the site acquisition, including the price and the identity of the seller, were not released. "We are moving ahead immediately with the redevelopment of 65 Stults Rd.," says Ken Griffin, senior vice president of development for the Cranbury-based Matrix. His company is currently in the process of designing the proposed light industrial building and is set to obtain the necessary approvals and begin construction by the middle of next year, according to Griffin.

"We feel that the demand for this property will be strong given its close proximity to local ports and its access to major highways," Griffin says. The site is located midway between Boston and Washington, DC, about 30 miles south of the ports and airport of Newark and Elizabeth.

Matrix's latest project comes in the wake of the recent leasing of 300,000 sf of warehouse/distribution space to Coaster Co. of America, a Santa Fe Springs, CA-based furniture retailer. Matrix signed Coaster to the space earlier this year and is currently nearing completion of the building at the neighboring 45 Stults Rd.

Matrix had started construction of the 439,000-sf 45 Stults Rd., similarly on a speculative basis, in 2004, after buying the property in 2003 and razing an obsolete existing warehouse building on the site. Coaster's lease leaves the remaining 139,000 sf still on the market. Altogether, Matrix has signed industrial leases totaling more than three million sf in the Garden State in the past two years, with much of that total in the New Jersey Turnpike corridor from Exit 8A to Exit 7A.