A 48-acre Salem County development site with a rare full slate of approvals for new industrial construction has been acquired by EQT Real Estate.

The plot on Collins Drive in the Salem Commerce Park in Carneys Point was previously owned by D2 Collins LLC, an affiliate of the D2 Organization.

“Being able to acquire a fully entitled site that has final unappealable site plan approval is very valuable in the New Jersey market,” D2 Vice President of Capital Markets Jack Cortese told Bisnow exclusively.

Intense opposition to new industrial projects has become commonplace statewide following a wave of warehouse construction to feed the pandemic-era e-commerce boom. That made the property especially appealing.

“You’re not going to see any more approved,” Cortese said.

An existing proposal calls for building three new structures totaling more than 700K SF. They will have footprints of roughly 178K SF, 254K SF and 274K SF, according to a release from D2. A 78K SF office building on the property is slated for demolition.

The site is in a federal opportunity zone and is part of New Jersey’s payment-in-lieu-of-taxes program, which means there will be reduced tax obligations and operating costs, Cortese said.

He declined to disclose the sale price. A CBRE team including Brian Fiumara represented D2.

Many Philadelphia suburbs are standouts in the industrial world, though Salem County hasn't necessarily been among them to date, Avison Young principal Matthew Marshall said.

“Places like Delaware County are doing very well right now, absorbing much more space by percentage than Philadelphia County,” he said. “I would say the only places of concern to me are places like Carneys Point.”

That submarket is dealing with lots of new supply and low leasing activity, Marshall said.

Avison Young exclusively provided Bisnow a copy of its first-quarter metro Philadelphia industrial report, which found that Salem County clocked a 44.2% industrial vacancy rate last quarter, up from about 32% in Q4. The county had more than 2M SF of deliveries in 2024 and almost 1M SF in Q1.

The vacancy rates in neighboring Gloucester and Cumberland counties were just 9.8% and 4.6%, respectively, last quarter.

“I don’t think that’s going to last very long,” Cortese said of the high vacancy in Salem County.

“Because it’s such a strong market, there was a lot of investment in the last few years,” he added. “A lot of those buildings are coming online.”

The relatively small size of the buildings planned for the Carneys Point site is an advantage, Cortese said. Tenants tend to prefer those footprints to larger spaces, which often sit on the market longer, he said.