Booming Cold Storage Sector Sees Another Big Lease, Build-to-Suit Facility in Northern New Jersey

A build-to-suit, 138,642-sf, Class A, frozen storage facility in Elizabeth, NJ has been fully leased to Seafrigo Cold Storage, says JLL Capital Markets.

 “Investors are fighting to deploy capital in the cold storage space,” JLL Managing Director Marc Duval said. “The scarcity of the asset type has created tremendous demand from a capital and tenant perspective, which puts the asset class in a position to outperform over the long run.”

The facility is located within the highly sought-after Port Industrial submarket, which, according to JLL Research’s New Jersey Industrial Insight report for the fourth quarter of 2021, had a vacancy rate of 1.4 percent with no cold storage availabilities.

Completed in 2016, the frozen storage facility was a build-to-suit for Seafrigo, a France-based food distributor specializing in handling chilled, frozen and ambient products. The frozen storage building features 60-foot clear heights, 18 temperature-controlled loading docks and 4,800 square feet of office space.

JLL represented the buyer, who acquired the asset from the seller, a joint venture between The Avidan Group and Elberon Development Group. 

The JLL Capital Markets team representing the buyer was led by Managing Directors Michael Oliver and Marc Duval, Senior Director Jordan Avanzato, Director Nicholas Stefans and Senior Managing Director Jose Cruz. 

The seller was represented in-house.