With manufacturing on the decline, developers are increasingly turning old industrial buildings into distribution centers.
According to a report by Newmark Knight Frank, e-commerce is driving demand for industrial properties that can be repositioned into or demolished to make way for distribution centers. Many of these warehouses are located in northern and central New Jersey, where sites offer quick access to highways, rails and ports. In Piscataway, the Rockefeller Group is turning a 228-acre site — formerly home to a Dow Chemical plastics factory — into five buildings that will span 2.1 million square feet for distribution use. Best Buy is the project’s first tenant, the New York Times reported.
In the past decade, the U.S. has lost roughly 640,000 manufacturing jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Thomas Hanna, president of Harvey Hanna & Associates, said that while “manufacturing isn’t entirely dead” his company couldn’t make the economics work to keep a former General Motors assembly plant in Delaware as a factory for luxury cars. Instead, the company will raze the plant to make way for four buildings designed for the logistics industry.
“Logistics is the fastest-growing segment within the real estate industry,” Hanna said. “Everyone is trying to figure out how to get their product to the consumer the fastest.”
In 2014, Amazon opened a miniature warehouse in Manhattan at Vornado Realty Trust’s 7 West 34th Street. Last year, the company announced that it would open its first large-scale distribution center in the city at Matrix Development Group’s in Staten Island.
Source: The Real Deal
Larry W. Genet is a Senior Vice President in the CBRE, Inc. Miami, FL office. As part of the CBRE platform Mr. Genet can provide a wide range of services from local to Fortune 1000 clients including agency and tenant representation, asset or portfolio management, high level logistics, labor and data analytics prior to site selection, project/construction management, capital markets, owner user sales and valuation advisory services. CBRE is the global leader for real estate services worldwide.
Larry has extensive experience in landlord agency, tenant representation, acquisitions, dispositions and property management. As a third-generation commercial real estate professional and South Florida native, Larry boasts deep community ties, an intimate knowledge of the South Florida market and numerous professional contacts. Larry’s leasing expertise of industrial, office, land, retail and medical properties coupled with his experience in acquisitions and dispositions gives him the ability to represent a myriad of clients in the South Florida market. Additionally, Larry controls a portfolio of 13.5 million square feet allowing him to see every deal in the market. This ensures his clients never miss an opportunity. His knowledge of tenants and buyers in the market is top notch and when coupled with his team's vast portfolio, it's a winning combination.
