Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Giant Opens New E-Commerce Fulfillment Center in Philadelphia

 By Javon Roach CoStar Research

The Giant Co. has opened a new Giant Direct e-commerce fulfillment center at 3501 Island Ave. in Philadelphia. The facility is set to serve more customers in Philadelphia and, for the first time in its 98-year history, in southern New Jersey.

The 124,000-square-foot facility features state-of-the-art technology, such as robotics, machine learning and vertical integration, according to Giant, which notes it is the first Ahold Delhaize USA company to implement this new fulfillment technology. Within the facility, two space-saving, 3D grids contain totes filled with fresh and non-perishable groceries. When a customer places a Giant Direct order, employees work alongside a team of robots that quickly gather items for bagging. After bagging, the employees place orders into temperature-controlled totes and onto trucks for delivery to customers.

The facility includes a selection of products that mirrors a traditional Giant store, stocking more than 22,000 items, to help meet increasing demand. The center is expected to fulfill up to about 15,000 home delivery orders per week, according to Giant.

"The opening of this facility is an exciting step forward as we continue to collaborate to evolve the supply chain network for the future," Ahold Delhaize USA Supply Chain President Chris Lewis said in the announcement. "Solutions like micro-fulfilment centers will be an important part of the self-distributed network, positioned to serve customers whenever, wherever, however they want to shop."

Starting Nov. 16, the facility will also provide Giant Direct delivery to the South Jersey towns of Camden, Cherry Hill, Gibbsboro, Haddonfield, Marlton, Medford, Mount Laurel and Voorhees. Giant plans to introduce Giant Direct to additional South Jersey towns over the next several months.

The new Giant Direct Philadelphia facility currently employs 125 workers. Giant is looking to hire an additional 125 workers with the busy holiday season approaching.

The Giant Direct brand was launched in February 2019 when Giant opened its first e-commerce hub in Lancaster. Giant now has more than 150 pickup locations and customers across 90% of the company's footprint have access to online grocery ordering and delivery services. Giant also launched Choice Pass earlier this year to its Giant Direct customers, providing unlimited free delivery and pickup for $98 a year.

Giant's new facility bolsters its presence in Philadelphia, which is set to grow from one store in 2018 to 10 by the end of 2023. In addition to three Giant Heirloom Markets and its new Philadelphia flagship Riverwalk store, Giant will open a new store on Cottman Avenue on Nov. 12, followed by a Giant on Columbus Boulevard and a Heirloom Market in the Fashion District by the end of the year.

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Thursday, November 18, 2021

Getting Back to Business and the Office (Video)

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Equus Capital Partners Divests Suburban Philadelphia Office Buildings

 By Melannie Skinner

MLP Ventures acquired two office buildings at 2201 and 2100 Renaissance Blvd. in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, for $41.8 million, or about $180 per square foot, from Equus Capital Partners.

The two office buildings total 232,644 square feet in the Renaissance Park business center.

There is 98,764 square feet of contiguous space available for lease across all three floors at 2100 Renaissance, while the four-story, 133,880-square-foot office at 2201 Renaissance is fully leased to Hibu,

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Rockefeller Group Starts Industrial Project in Central New Jersey

 By Linda Moss CoStar News

Developer Rockefeller Group is building a 345,600-square-foot distribution center in Burlington County in New Jersey.

The New York real estate firm has started construction of the Rockefeller Group Logistics Center at 2575 Route 206 in Easthampton. It will be located on a 27.64-acre parcel roughly 8 miles from Exit 7 of the New Jersey Turnpike.

Rockefeller Group purchased the property in September, and the project is slated to be completed in the fall of next year.

The Exit 8A market near Exit 7 “has seen record growth and absorption over the past five years,” Zachary Csik, director of real estate development for Rockefeller Group’s New Jersey-Pennsylvania region, said Wednesday in a statement. He said tenants are looking south to the area surrounding Exit 7 in Burlington County for Class A distribution space.

The property will include 96 trailer spaces, 384 auto parking spaces, and a 185-foot truck court with a 60-foot concrete apron. The state-of-the-art facility will also include 54 dock doors with two drive-in doors, 36-foot-clear ceiling heights, 4,000 square feet of speculative office space, and LED lighting.

Burlington County has been attracting industrial development because of its accessibility to the New York and New Jersey ports, southern New Jersey and Philadelphia.

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Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Despite The Numbers, It Could Be Smooth Sailing for Harrisburg's Office Market

 By Ben Atwood CoStar Analytics

Over the past 12 months, real estate professionals from across central Pennsylvania have kept a wary eye on Harrisburg's office market, waiting with bated breath for the signs of strain seen in so many cities across the country to appear in the state's capital city.

To an outsider, it might look as though those cracks surfaced in the first quarter of 2021. The market has posted negative net absorption, meaning more tenants vacated space than took occupancy of, for three straight quarters, and annualized net absorption is over 500,000 square feet in the red.

Harrisburg's problems were further compounded in September. That month, in the span of two weeks, both Rite Aid and Harsco announced they would be relocating their corporate headquarters to Center City Philadelphia.

The two companies have deep roots in the area and their departures are certainly a stinger for the office market. Rite Aid occupies over 200,000 square feet of space, and the Fortune 500 company has been open on the fact that most of its corporate employees will be working out of Philly.

The loss of two major employers, plus the negative net absorption, certainly isn’t a good look. But in spite of all the dark prophecies floating around the future of the office market, it’s too early to panic.

In fact, despite those numbers, Harrisburg might still be the most stable office market in the state.

And that's largely because of the state.

"Anyone that deals with the government or gets funding from the government or need to interact with the government in some way, they still need to be here and that’s just not going anywhere," said Sarah Rietmulder Gates, portfolio manager at Linlo Properties.

Linlo is one of largest office owners in central Pennsylvania, and she told CoStar that her group was becoming cautiously optimistic about the sector’s future.

"Compared to our worst fear expectations and what we are reading and hearing about in other markets, our area isn't reeling in the same way," she said. "When it comes down to the straight numbers, Linlo's technically having one of the best years ever."

Gates said her firm pays close attention to renewal metrics, particularly lease term length. Those numbers fell in 2020, but she says they have normalized in 2021, with more tenants signing for leases at pre-pandemic lengths.

She also said that Rite Aid and Harsco's departure were not catastrophic events. Harsco only employed about 100 people in the area and Rite Aid wasn't entrenched in the local economy. In other words, it wasn't good, but its not like Hershey's is rolling out.

There's nothing cautious about Dan Alderman's level of optimism. Alderman is a broker at NAI CIR and has been active in the Central Pennsylvania real estate game since 1983. He says that 2021 has been a great year for him and his firm, and not just because it came after the mayhem of 2020.

"Our office market is just amazing right now; it's just been a fantastic year by any measurement," he said.

Now that's not a sentiment you hear every day from a Pennsylvania office broker. If fact, that take might be unique to Harrisburg.

Alderman also pointed out the region’s negative absorption numbers are mainly due to the closure of a few call centers and said he would not be surprised if office demand picked up quickly because of the federal infrastructure bill and pandemic-related relief funds.

That's an interesting thought, and one that could have ramifications for state capitals across the country.

If you are an entity in Pennsylvania and you wish to receive some of these funds, you likely need to convince someone in Harrisburg to give them to you. That creates an incentive for all industries across the entire state and beyond to have an office presence within this market.

So, despite the recent turbulence, it's still far too early to ring the alarm bells for Harrisburg office. Instead, this might be a market worth monitoring in the coming months.

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Tuesday, November 16, 2021

The Top 10 Markets for Investing in Smaller Industrial Properties

By Lauren Shanesy LoopNet

Industrial properties have emerged as a premier asset class with the surge in online shopping; e-commerce companies like Amazon are opening new distribution centers at an unprecedented pace. Chasing this swell in leasing and construction activity, international investment companies like Blackstone have made headlines by pouring more capital into the industrial space than ever before.

The industry was seeing a clear, strategic shift by institutional owners to prioritize industrial assets even before the pandemic. Since 2007, multi-asset investors owning more than $500 million of property have decreased their office ownership by 28% and increased their industrial share by 18%.

But with money rushing into the logistics sector from the world’s largest financial institutions, where should smaller investors looking to enter the space focus their attention?

Analyzing markets with an abundance of property sales priced under $20 million, CoStar's commercial real estate marketplace LoopNet, along with CoStar Analytics, developed a list of the top 10 markets that smaller investors should consider when purchasing industrial properties.

We based our analysis on three key factors for industrial investment:

Liquidity: The percentage of properties valued at less than $20 million that have sold since 2019.

Rent Growth: Year-over-year rent increases from the third quarter of 2020 to the third quarter of 2021.

Vacancy Rate: The portion of each market’s industrial inventory that is currently unoccupied (markets with low vacancy rates rank higher).

The 10 markets we selected are rife with opportunities, as a lot of them are located between major delivery ports for distribution access, yet removed enough from major markets to offer affordability. Moreover, that affordability will likely attract residents seeking a lower cost of living, leading to population growth and creating further demand for last-mile logistics facilities.

Based on our analysis, LoopNet identified these 10 markets as offering the most promising opportunities for smaller investors seeking industrial properties:

  1. Inland Empire, California
  2. Salt Lake City
  3. Phoenix
  4. Sacramento, California
  5. Philadelphia
  6. Atlanta
  7. Los Angeles
  8. Memphis, Tennessee
  9. Las Vegas
  10. San Antonio
... Philadelphia

Philadelphia has deep roots as a manufacturing hub, and its location right in the middle of the I-95 corridor stretching from Washington, D.C. to New York City make it a compelling choice for small- and mid-sized investors, said Adrian Ponsen, CoStar’s U.S. director of industrial.

The Philadelphia market has experienced the largest rent growth of any of the markets on our list, at 12.02% year-over-year. And it ranks among the fastest growing industrial markets, in terms of rental rates, in the United States.

While there is a lot of new construction underway in the metro area, smaller investors might find opportunities in the older industrial properties located throughout Philadelphia proper that are being acquired, renovated and successfully re-leased to tenants that run the gamut from local contractors to Amazon.

Liquidity: 11.83%
Rent Growth: 12.02%
Vacancy: 4.07%

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Friday, November 12, 2021

Audubon Land Development buys Happy Days Farm in Exton for $18M

 Natalie Kostelni Reporter Philadelphia Business Journal

Audubon Land Development has paid Nelson Realty Trust, an entity affiliated with Vanguard Group, $18.1 million for what is referred to as the Happy Days Farm, which fronts the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Route 100 in Exton, according to Chester County property records.

Records show that roughly 240 acres were purchased by the Lower Providence-based real estate company.

The Uwchlan planning commission has approved a plan in which Audubon Land will develop 1.93 million square feet of warehouse-distribution centers in three buildings and a 30-acre passive park with trails. Audubon Land told Uwchlan officials that work could begin on the largest of the buildings, a 1.1-million-square-foot structure, and the park in 2022.

Full story: https://tinyurl.com/5354djjv

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Praxis Modular Opens Factory in Wilkes Barre

By Connor Steele CoStar Research

Praxis Modular has opened a volumetric modular factory in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania.

The company leased 275,000 square feet at the 1.06 million-square-foot facility at 1055 Hanover St. for its new factory. The factory is set to bring in 120 new jobs.

This is the largest volumetric modular factory in North America, Praxis said in a statement announcing its new facility. The 275,000-square-foot factory is four- to five-times larger than most modular manufacturers and the output will be five- to six-times greater than the conventional modular manufacturers, according to Praxis.

Praxis will produce wood, light gauge steel or structural steel modules for its projects throughout the Northeast at this location. The factory will feature two production lines and state-of-the-art technology, including automation and robotics.

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Thursday, November 11, 2021

Tried and True Defense Against Inflation *Hint Commercial Real Estate (Video)

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Treeco Pays $28 Million for Philadelphia Multifamily Portfolio

 By Carlos Likins CoStar News

Treeco has purchased a portfolio of six apartment complexes in Philadelphia's Fairmount and Brewerytown neighborhoods for $28 million.

The Englewood, New Jersey-based investment, development and management firm acquired the residential properties from Philadelphia-based Stamm Development Group.

The 78-unit portfolio includes The Fairmount Flats at 745-751 N. 20th St., 726 N. 19th St., 711 N. 16th St., 714 N 19th St., The Fairmount Greenery at 817 N. 20th St. and The Porter at 2940 W. Thompson St.

"One of Philadelphia’s leading private real estate development firms, SDG builds impeccable residential properties that warrant a very high price per unit. As a result, we were able to market the portfolio in its entirety and arrange the sale to a single buyer. We are extremely pleased with the result that met the high expectations of our client."

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Endurance Sells Phillips Pet Food & Supplies' Lehigh Valley Facility for $62.3 Million

 By Carlos Likins CoStar News

An affiliate of Endurance Real Estate Group has sold a fully leased distribution facility in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, region for $62.3 million.

The Radnor-based owner and developer sold the property to RLIF Hecktown SPE LLC, an entity that shares the same address as real estate investor Realterm, according to Northampton County real estate records.

The 307,290-square-foot facility was built in 1986 and expanded in 2013. It is located on 28.5 acres at 3747 Hecktown Road in Easton off Route 33 on the eastern edge of the Lehigh Valley. The facility is fully occupied by Phillips Pet Food & Supplies, serving as the company's corporate headquarters and primary distribution location in the Northeast.

"Demand on this asset was very strong as buyers continue to seek well-located stabilized assets throughout Eastern Pennsylvania, particularly in the Lehigh Valley." 

This marks Endurance's fourth sale this year. Over the last 90 days, the company purchased and began construction on a 1 million-square-foot speculative distribution center in Olyphant, commenced construction a 251,200-square-foot speculative distribution center in Middletown, purchased a 1.6 million-square-foot building in York and completed construction on a two-building, 330,000-square-foot speculative industrial park in Berks County.

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Saturday, November 6, 2021

Morgan Properties drops $780.5M for two large apartment portfolios

 Natalie Kostelni Reporter Philadelphia Business Journal

Morgan Properties has grown to own 95,000 apartment units across the country with a $780.5 million acquisition of two portfolios throughout the fast-growing South, a region that it has been targeting.

The King of Prussia company, which focuses on Class B multifamily properties, bought what is referred to as the Middle Street Partners and Northland portfolios, which consisted of 18 communities with 4,724 apartment in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina.  

The Middle Street Partners portfolio involved 15 apartment communities with 4,102 units and the Northland portfolio had 622 units focused in West Palm Beach. Morgan Properties plans to spend $47.5 million on renovations to the communities.

Full story: 

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Thursday, November 4, 2021

Accesso Partners Buys Westlakes in Berwyn, PA from Keystone for $297/SF

Keystone Property Group has sold Westlakes, a 455,183-square-foot office park in Berwyn, for $135 million, or $297 a square foot.

Accesso Partners, a Hallandale Beach, Florida, real estate company that also owns 1515 Market St. in Center City, bought the four-building complex on 40 acres off Swedesford Road at Route 202. At the time of the sale, Westlakes was 92% occupied with PNC Bank, Brinker Capital, Montgomery McCracken, Chartwell Investment Partners and Amring Pharmaceuticals among its tenants.

“What surprised us was how robust the demand was for Westlakes,” said Bill Glazer, CEO of Keystone. “It was such a hotly contested bidding process. There was not only the demand but the price point, which is really compelling for the market and a major statement for office properties.”

Glazer and Accesso declined to confirm the sale price though market sources indicated it was $135 million. 

Keystone bought Westlakes in 2013 as part of its $233 million acquisition of a Mack-Cali Realty Corp. portfolio totaling 1.66 million square feet. Keystone then spent about $5 million on a range of upgrades to the property including creating indoor and outdoor gathering spaces and cafés.

Full story: https://tinyurl.com/3384w3mj

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Investors Remain Shy, but There’s a Lot To Like in Scranton’s Multifamily Market

 By Ben Atwood CoStar Analytics

There’s a curious lack of investment in Scranton, Pennsylvania’s white-hot apartment market.

While a dearth of sales is not abnormal for this northeastern corner of the commonwealth, the strength of its apartment market could put Scranton in the spotlight.

Local multifamily vacancies currently hover around 2%, some of the lowest figures in market history. The strong demand and limited supply have driven year-over-year rent growth to an unprecedented 9%, which is nearly three times the market's 10-year historic average.

Despite such transcendent numbers, investors have remained cautious. Just over $10 million have been spent acquiring Scranton apartments in the past four quarters, and these were mainly transactions involving locals buying and selling small assets.

No doubt the market's historic issues are suppressing investor interest. Both Lackawanna and Luzerne counties have been losing residents for a generation. The latest census data shows this outmigration has not stopped, and the relatively tepid economy would give many outsiders pause.

However, the coronavirus pandemic may have changed things, particularly for multifamily.

As a result of the shutdown, Scranton's warehouse sector is absolutely booming. The surge in online shopping brought about by the pandemic has exponentially increased demand for shipping facilities and last year, Scranton led Pennsylvania’s secondary markets in demand. This year has been equally strong, as its warehouses have seen over 5 million square feet of net absorption in the past four quarters alone.

Major retailers are moving in to take advantage of its prime location on the North Atlantic Trade Corridor. This growth is creating thousands of construction, trucking and warehousing jobs.

The region has also seen an uptick in interest from international manufacturers, and the advent of remote working could be bringing people back into the market. Scranton is just two hours from Philadelphia and New York. A hybrid or remote schedule would allow workers in those markets to pay Scranton rents on a big-city salary.

These factors could all produce a slight increase in demand for apartments, which is all it would take to keep this region's multifamily sector rock solid. This is because very little institutional level projects have been built here over the past decade.

Few people take a chance building supply in such a challenged region, and the elevated construction prices the pandemic has caused will likely keep inventory tight for some time.

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Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Conshohocken, PA Based - EQT Exeter Portfolio Sale One of Largest on Record

 By Mark Heschmeyer CoStar News

The real estate arm of global investment firm EQT has sold a warehouse portfolio for $6.8 billion in one of the largest U.S. industrial real estate deals on record.

The high price for the 70.5 million-square-foot portfolio, which consists of 328 supply-chain and e-commerce facilities assembled through more than 100 transactions over three years, signals still increasing demand for industrial properties as more Americans shop online.

The portfolio is composed mainly of logistics properties that serve the supply chains of major corporations, including facilities for big-box regional distribution, e-commerce fulfillment and so-called last-mile package handling that moves deliveries in the last leg of the journey to consumers’ homes.

The portfolio spans the top five U.S. distribution markets of New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles, and the key e-commerce and air cargo hubs of Memphis, Tennessee; Indianapolis; Columbus, Ohio; and Louisville, Kentucky.

While EQT Exeter didn't name the buyer and declined to comment to CoStar News beyond a statement issued Wednesday, a new commercial mortgage-backed securities offering on the market identifies affiliates of GIC Realty Private, a global investment firm established in 1981 to manage Singapore’s foreign reserves, as a buyer of a 99.2% interest in 142 properties from EQT Exeter.

That deal is part of EQT Exeter’s recapitalization of a larger platform of more than 300 industrial properties for about $6.8 billion that has occurred over the course of the past 12 months, according to bond analysis by DBRS Morningstar. GIC is contributing roughly $2.7 billion in connection with the broader recapitalization.

EQT Exeter completed the latest sale on behalf of a private real estate fund and related investment vehicles. The company plans to continue managing the properties.

Ward Fitzgerald, CEO of EQT Exeter, said in the statement that “today’s transaction is the fourth multibillion-dollar portfolio sale for EQT Exeter."

EQT Exeter said it raised the portfolio’s occupancy from 55% to 95% at the time of sale while increasing the average yield from the properties to 6.9% from 4.8%.

The CMBS deal, ELP Commercial Mortgage Trust 2021-ELP, involves a $1.75 billion loan offering used for the acquisition of 142 properties. Providing the loan are Citi Real Estate Funding, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley Mortgage Capital.

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Monday, November 1, 2021

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Netflix To Bid for 300-Acre Parcel for Studio in New Jersey

 New Jersey, the site of the first U.S. movie studio, may be on its way to becoming a hub for film and TV production again.

That's because West Coast video-streaming powerhouse Netflix has officially said it plans to bid on a nearly 300-acre parcel at a former U.S. Army base in the Garden State, where it would build a state-of-the-art studio.

Netflix, based in Los Gatos, California, confirmed it's interested in the so-called Mega Parcel at Fort Monmouth, land that the state of New Jersey recently put on the block. If the entertainment company in fact does come to New Jersey, it would be a win for Gov. Phil Murphy, whose administration has focused on luring "Innovation Economy" businesses to the state, including TV and movie makers, with tax incentives.

The rise of streaming services — stand-alone brands such as Netflix and spin-offs from media giants like Walt Disney Co., Amazon, Apple and Discovery Communications — has created a voracious demand for TV and film production space to create original content. In fact, Netflix already has studio facilities in places like New Mexico and Brooklyn, New York. But that need for production sites comes as e-commerce is competing for industrial space, eating up warehouses and other facilities.

In New Jersey, that's playing out in the form of bids for the 289-acre parcel, which is located in Oceanport and Eatontown, being due Jan. 12. They are being solicited by the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority, FMERA, which oversees development at the 1,126-acre former military installation. The site has been appraised at $54 million, but would likely fetch much more than that.

"That's highly desirable real estate," said John Boyd Jr., a principal of relocation consultant Boyd Co. "This Fort Monmouth site is very, very attractive, because of the IT skill sets in the region, [and] obviously its proximity to Manhattan. And the real estate itself is really a crown jewel when you look at available industrial parks in the Northeast. And it's land in a very attractive environment. You have proximity to the coast line. Housing options that are diverse and desirable. You've got the new tax credit."

In the Los Angeles region, sound stages have consistently been about 95% occupied since 2015, a trend likely to continue, according to a September report by the brokerage JLL.


To help meet the demand, just last week King Street Capital Management, Canada’s Alberta Investment Management Corp. and East End Studios announced they plan to spend up to $500 million to acquire and develop sound stages in the Los Angeles region and other U.S. and international film centers.

Tax Breaks Back

New Jersey for several years didn't have a tax-incentive program in place to lure TV and movie production, after then-Gov. Chris Christie in 2015 suspended the initiative because of his anger over MTV's "Jersey Shore" hit show, which depicted youths drinking and carousing at the Garden State's beaches. But the tax incentives for the industry were reinstated three years ago by Murphy, and expanded earlier this year as part of an $14.5 billion overhauled tax-incentive plan.

Still, there's lots of competition to draw TV and film producers from states that have aggressively courted the industry such as Georgia, New York, New Mexico and Louisiana. But Murphy has also proactively wooed the entertainment industry. In April, after Georgia passed a law criticized as restricting voter access, Murphy sent a letter to the major Hollywood studios — including Netflix — that touted New Jersey new tax incentives, which offer "a subsidy for brick-and-mortar studio development of up to 40%."

According to Boyd, "This is an example of New Jersey leveraging its diversity and inclusiveness for an economic development project. In the wake of the Georgia voting bill, Murphy was proactive and went out and approached Netflix."

The Garden State is having a good year so far in terms of TV and movies. Overall in-state production spending from film-making will exceed $500 million this year, following "a very busy spring and summer and an unprecedented amount of production taking place this fall," according to the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission.

In July, the The Two River Times, a local media outlet, reported that Netflix was eyeing Fort Monmouth as a site for a production facility. At the time, the governor's office and FMERA declined to comment. But on Tuesday, a week from the day voters will decide whether to re-elect Murphy, The New York Times reported that Netflix planned to bid on the Fort Monmouth parcel.

“America's first movie studio was in New Jersey, and today it's home to many talented people working in entertainment," a Netflix spokeswoman said in an email to CoStar News on Wednesday. "Gov. Murphy and the state’s legislative leaders have created a business environment that's welcomed film and television production back to the state, and we’re excited to submit our bid to transform Fort Monmouth into a state-of-the-art production facility.”

Murphy also issued a statement.

"New Jersey has become a leader in new, innovative industries from offshore wind to sports betting to film and digital media, and today's announcement by Netflix is another sign that companies around the world are taking notice,” he said.

Economic Development Trophy

If Netflix has the winning bid, "this will be the trophy on his [Murphy's] mantle in respect to economic development — the prestige of Netflix, the synergies with other sorts or skill sets related to IT, multimedia media production," according to Boyd.

As a state agency, FMERA has to sell property through a competitive public bidding process and can't comment on any prospective bidders or the status of any potential bids, according to a spokeswoman for the authority.

"This is a unique development opportunity in the state," the FMERA spokeswoman said in an email. "Until such time as the proposal period closes on Jan. 12, 2022, proposals are reviewed and scored by our evaluation committee, and our board endorses the proposed purchase and sale agreement and redevelopment agreement between FMERA and the selected potential purchaser, we cannot provide any additional insight or feedback with regard to what is being proposed for the Mega Parcel (following the receipt of bids), by any of the prospective bidders."

Netflix has been in the news recently because of its oft-times cutting-edge programming. Its most-viewed show ever, "Squid Game," is a Korean TV show that became a global hit. And the service's comedy special, "The Closer" by David Chappelle, sparked outrage from the LGBTQ community, and led to an employee walkout in protest.

Netflix's largest production facility, ABQ Studios, is in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The streaming service paid $40 million for it in 2018, according to CoStar data, and said it planned to invest $1 billion in the area. In December last year, Netflix vowed to expand and double that investment, by spending another $1 billion.

The company has also recently acquired a 170,000-square-foot former steel factory in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, which converted to sound stages. It is one of a number of production facilities now clustered in New York City, which include Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, Queens, and Steiner Studios at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

New Jersey has also seen some recent development of TV and film production space, although on a much smaller scale. Cinelease Studios Caven Point in Jersey City and Palisade Stages in Kearny opened earlier this year, and 10 Basin Studios in Kearny will open its doors in November, according to the state film commission. Insight Equipment, a lighting and grip supplier, opened facilities in Secaucus and Carlstadt in July, and other developments are on the way including further expansion from Cinelease, the commission said.

The film industry has deep roots in New Jersey, starting with Thomas Edison and his facility in West Orange. Fort Lee is credited with being where the commercial U.S. film industry was born, with silent films such as "The Perils of Pauline" filmed on the Palisades, the cliffs of the "cliffhangers," on the Hudson River. Many studios, including Fox and Universal, got their start in Fort Lee.

Some marquee movies have been shot in the Garden State recently, including "The Many Saints of Newark," the prequel to HBO's series "The Sopranos," and Steven Spielberg's version of "West Side Story," scheduled for release in December.

TV shows and movies bring money into the state. Universal Television spent close to $100 million in New Jersey while producing Season One of CBS’s "The Equalizer," which stars Newark, New Jersey, native Queen Latifah, according to the state's film commission.

Netflix's real estate investments have gone beyond just production facilities. The streaming service has acquired three theaters, most recently one in the upscale Pacific Palisades in California.

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