By Allison Pries | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
A big garbage dump in the Meadowlands is going to be developed into an e-commerce industrial park.
Companies, such as Amazon and other online retailers, use these specialized warehouses to move their goods out to the consumer. And strong internet sales are driving double-digit growth in this sector of the real estate market.
The 718-acre Kingsland Tract, a former landfill that stretches into Lyndhurst, Rutherford and North Arlington, was purchased for $42.5 million by Russo Development and Forsgate Industrial Partners.
The two buyers won a competitive bidding process in June 2015 to be able to buy the site. Their plan is to build Kingsland Meadowlands, a new logistics e-commerce development of up to six buildings totaling more than 3 million square feet of industrial space.
The property, which was owned by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, has been the subject of redevelopment for decades. It even had the attention of Donald Trump, who in November 2007 promised to build a world-class golf course there.
The property then was known as EnCap, and its redevelopment plan consisted of a mix of residences and the golf course. Trump stepped in to bail out EnCap after it became mired in financial troubles. But the project fell apart anyway in May 2008 when the NJSEA terminated its agreement with EnCap Golf Holdings because it missed clean-up targets.
Now, 11 years later, the site finally has another plan in place for redevelopment.
“Back when the EnCap project was proposed it was hard not to support a project that was transforming closed old landfills into golf courses with a resort style conference hotel,” said Jim Kirkos, president of the Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce.
“In order to make the economics of their investment work, the developer wanted to build a significant amount of residential housing which eventually was not approved because those units would be built on the landfills.”
“Fast forward to today where a very reputable partnership of developers…will build warehouse and logistics facilities on the Kingsland Property that are currently in very high demand for this region,” Kirkos said.
Russo and Forsgate are both already invested in the Meadowlands. Russo has completed more than 8 million square feet of industrial projects in the Meadowlands. And Forsgate owns and manages more than 3 million square feet of industrial buildings in the area.
