Amazon leases Teterboro warehouse
Amazon.com Inc., the e-commerce giant, has leased a large Teterboro warehouse as it continues to expand in New Jersey in its drive to make speedy deliveries in the densely populated New York metropolitan area.
Amazon signed a 10-year lease for the 617,000-square-foot warehouse at 698 Route 46 West, which once housed Ford Motor Co. auto parts, according to a source close to the deal. Amazon, based in Seattle, did not respond to a request for comment, and the leasing agent, Cushman & Wakefield of New Jersey, declined to comment.
The property is owned by TIAA Global Asset Management of New York City, which also declined to comment.
The lease is believed to be Amazon’s second in Bergen County. The company also quietly leased a 75,000-square-foot warehouse at 2 Empire Boulevard in Moonachie last year.
The company has been close-mouthed about its North Jersey leases, although it is more open about its other locations in the Garden State, which it entered in mid-2014 with a 1.2-million-square-foot distribution center in Robbinsville, near Trenton.
It also has a 1-million-square-foot center near the New Jersey Turnpike in Carteret and a warehouse in the Avenel section of Woodbridge, which it uses to deliver Amazon Fresh grocery orders in New York City and parts of New Jersey.
In April, Amazon announced plans to open two more fulfillment centers in the state — a second site in Carteret and one in Florence in Burlington County. The additional sites will expand the company’s New Jersey workforce from 5,500 to 7,500.
The Teterboro lease is emblematic of the strong demand for warehouse space in North Jersey. Vacancy rates have fallen to historic lows, and rents have risen to their highest levels in years, as more consumers expect quick delivers of online purchases, and e-commerce companies search for warehouse space to store all the goods. Meadowlands warehouses are especially hot because the area is so close to New York City and a network of highways, allowing for the quick deliveries that consumers expect.
The warehouse leased by Amazon is across Route 46 from Teterboro Airport and a new Costco and Walmart. It is at the intersection of Route 46 and Route 17, with Route 17 offering quick access to Route 80.
TIAA bought the Teterboro warehouse for $81 million in 2013, in what was one of Bergen County’s largest commercial real estate deals that year. The building, on 27 acres, had been owned by a real estate investment company and served as a distribution center for the Calhoun, Ga.-based flooring company Mohawk Industries Inc. Mohawk’s lease ended in 2015.
The Teterboro building is a former Ford parts-distribution center. The Dearborn, Mich.-based auto maker sold the site to a real estate investment trust in 2002 for $32 million.
The building was constructed in 1954 and renovated in 2004 and 2005.
Email: lynn@northjersey.com; Twitter: @KathleenLynn3