Ground Breaks for 1M SF of Spec Industrial

CARTERET, NJ-Panattoni Development Co. has broken ground for two spec industrial buildings on a 120-acre site here. Dubbed i-Port 12, the project totals 1.26 million sf of space and takes the numeric part of its name from the adjacent Exit 12 of the New Jersey Turnpike. It also marks the initial project in the Garden State for the Sacramento-based Panattoni.

As reported by GlobeSt.com,the project was initially announced in early 2004, and Panattoni opened an office in nearby Edison to oversee its activities in the Garden State. At the time, the company hired Jim Murray away from Matrix Development Group to head the New Jersey office as a partner in Panattoni. The 18-month period from announcement to groundbreaking was spent remediating the brownfield site, which was used as a landfill for several decades before being closed in the 1970s. The remediation process reportedly cost in the neighborhood of $30 million.

As far as i-Port 12, the two single-story facilities, 1,064,515 sf and 200,218 sf, will be known as 8001 and 8003 Industrial Rd. respectively, according to information released by Panattoni. The site itself is located less than 10 miles from the Port of Newark/Elizabeth and Newark Liberty International Airport, and the space is being marketed to potential users for its proximity to those venues. The site is also designated with foreign-trade zone and urban enterprise zone benefits and incentives.

Panattoni is actually doing the project in partnership with investor P/A Associates of New York City. KSS Architects of Princeton designed the facilities and the Bank of America provided the financing. Panattoni Construction Inc. is the general contractor.

I-Port 12 is expected to further benefit from a major expansion of the adjacent Exit 12, which has been significantly overburdened with traffic for years. The New Jersey DOT and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority launched the expansion project, which is designed to double the interchange's capacity in late 2004.

I-Port 12 is also one of two projects Panattoni is involved with in its launch into the New Jersey market. As reported by GlobeSt.com, the company, founded in 1986 by Carl Panattoni, is part of a partnership that's under contract to redevelop 175 waterfront acres in nearby Perth Amboy. Mixed uses are on tap for the i-Port 440, which similarly requires site remediation prior to construction; i-Port 440 takes its name from Route 440, which provides primary access to the site.