Link Logistics Real Estate is teaming up with Bridge Development Partners to create a 480,000-square-foot industrial campus on a 60-acre site in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, a hot spot for such projects.
Bridge, headquartered in Chicago, assigned the contract for the vacant site at 428 E. Moorestown Road in Wind Gap to Link after securing all of the necessary development approvals. Link Logistics, the Piscataway, New Jersey-based industrial real estate arm of investment giant Blackstone, has retained Bridge to provide development management services and to construct the industrial facility on its behalf.
Construction on the project is slated to begin this month, with completion expected in December. It is Bridge's first development in Pennsylvania and will be overseen by northeast region partner Jeff Milanaik and his team, according to a statement from the real estate firm.
With space for industrial development scant and state-of-the-art logistics properties scarce in North Jersey, real estate firms have gone south and west to build warehouse and distribution hubs. That's sparked a flood of development in the Lehigh Valley, a region that borders and includes part of the Garden State but mainly encompasses Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton in Pennsylvania.
Although Bridge hasn't had any projects in the Keystone State previously, it has developed in the New Jersey portion of the Lehigh Valley. The developer built Bridge Point 78, a 3.85 million-square-foot industrial campus with six buildings in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, on a former Ingersoll Rand site.
The project's first phase was recently purchased by PGIM Real Estate for $275 million, according to CoStar data. The complex has a tenant roster that includes Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo, Mark Anthony Brands, which distributes White Claw alcoholic seltzer, and lawn-care manufacturer ScottsMiracle-Gro.
"The Lehigh Valley continues to distinguish itself as one of the country’s most vital distribution and logistics hubs, which was critical to our success at nearby Bridge Point 78," Milanaik said in a statement.
The proposed Lehigh North project would feature 36-foot clear heights, a cross-docked configuration for its 73 exterior docks, four drive-in doors, 100 trailer positions and parking for 187 cars. The facility is equidistant between Route 78 and Allentown near Route 33 through the Northampton Valley.
The new development would be an addition to Link's Lehigh Valley portfolio, which totals more than 16 million square feet of industrial space, according to Britton Winterer, the company's executive vice president and head of development.
It is the second industrial project that Bridge and Link have partnered on, with the two companies developing a 95,000-square-foot industrial facility in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, in 2019.
