New tenants filling up former Permacel site
BY JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer

FILE PHOTO The former Permacel site along Route 1 south in North Brunswick has been renovated as the Seagis Corporate Park and includes warehouse, distribution, assembly, manufacturing and office space. Half of the 350,000-square-foot industrial complex has been leased.

NORTH BRUNSWICK - More than half of the renovated space at the former Permacel headquarters off Route 1 has already been leased, according to a press release from Cushman & Wakefield Inc.

The property's exclusive leasing agent said the 350,000-square-foot industrial complex, purchased by the Seagis Property Group in November 2004, can now accommodate multiple users. The renovations include updated facades, new office space built to suit tenants, state-of-the-art heating and internal systems, improved loading and circulation, new roofing and lighting, expanded and refinished parking areas, an on-site power substation, enhanced landscaping and other general improvements.

The facility is located by the Technology Centre of New Jersey and the Economic Development Authority. Seagis Corporate Park now includes modern, Class A warehouse/distribution, assembly/manufacturing and office space.

The first tenant, Parksite Plunkett Webster, a wholesale distributor of exterior and interior building materials, preleased 112,000 square feet just after Seagis purchased the property.

"The tenant required substantial outside storage, and we were able to provide it," said Jason Goldman, a leasing team member of Cushman & Wakefield. "Within this mature, densely built-out submarket, this distinguishes the Seagis property."

The building's second tenant, Home Delivery America, signed on for 70,000 square feet in early 2007. The third-party warehouse and delivery company services furniture retailers and required 1 acre of truck parking for its route vehicles, which the property was able to accommodate.

To attract more tenants, Cushman & Wakefield recently hosted a broker open house to showcase the available space at the 30-acre Seagis Corporate Park, including the 140,000-square-foot former Permacel manufacturing facility, which Seagis just finished gutting, updating and readying for custom fit-out. The building also has a 29,000-square-foot office component that has been updated and is available for immediate occupancy.

"We are pleased with the outcome of the redevelopment project and its reception in the market," said Dave Gibbons, Seagis' senior vice president. "We are encouraged by the preleasing of more than half the project and have some aggressively priced warehouse and office space now ready for immediate occupancy."

As opposed to the Permacel property, which made payments in lieu of taxes, the new property will be a "solid, straight-forward tax ratable," according to Mayor Francis "Mac" Womack, who said that the property "truly is a significant commercial development that no one really knows about if they don't go there".

"It represents in a good way how we're moving from a purely industrial-type state to a service-provider state," he said.