By Linda Moss CoStar News

Dermody Properties has paid $37.6 million to acquire two sites in southern New Jersey where it plans to develop two logistics facilities.

The Reno, Nevada-based private equity investment and develipment firm on Tuesday said it had purchased the parcels for the new projects in Burlington County, which is part of its East region: LogistiCenter at Lumberton in Lumberton and LogistiCenter at Mount Laurel in Mount Laurel.

New Jersey has been a hot bed of warehouse development, and in the past five years Burlington County has been one of the most active areas in the Garden State with regard to leasing activity, according to Dermody. The company said the county "is ideal for distribution to more than one third of the U.S. population within a one-day drive."

Dermody paid $30.5 million for the property to build the Lumberton distribution center. That planned 429,200-square-foot logistics facility will located on 40.5 acres at 1791 Route 38. Site work is underway and the building is expected to be completed by March 2024, according to Dermody.

The facility will include two drive-in doors, 58 dock high doors, a 36-foot-clear ceiling heights and build-to-suit office space. The building’s 56 trailer parking stalls are also expandable to 228 total parking stalls, Dermody said.

Dermody paid $7.1 million for the site for its 190,470-square-foot facility slated for Mount Laurel, according to CoStar data. It is planned for 31 acres at 2001 Briggs Road. Construction is scheduled to kick off this fall and be done by fall 2024, Dermody said. The location offers convenient access to Interstate 295 as well as the Center City district of Philadelphia, according to the developer.

“In such a challenging market, we feel very fortunate to be in a position to acquire properties such as these and expand our footprint within New Jersey,” Rob Borny, Dermody East Region partner, said in a statement. "Both projects will be state-of-the-art, Class A facilities that offer prime access to New Jersey’s strong labor pool, which is one of the most important factors for companies looking for warehouse and distribution space.”

LogistiCenter is a nationally trademarked brand owned and developed by Dermody.

In the industrial sector Dermody has also been active in acquiring former corporate campuses to repurpose as logistics and distribution sites. It paid more than $230 million last year to acquire Allstate's headquarters campus in Chicago’s northern suburbs, where it will replace office buildings with more than 3.2 million square feet of logistics space. And Dermody has a pending deal with Amazon for an office campus in Milpitas, California, the e-commerce giant acquired but never occupied.

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