RealCold Breaks Ground in East Hanover

On Nov 14, 2024

RealCold, an operator and provider of cold chain services for the food sector, broke ground on a 380,000 square-foot, fully-convertible, temperature-controlled facility in East Hanover. It is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2026. The facility will sit less than 30 minutes from the Port of Newark, and its position on Route 10 will allow easy access to service the tri-state area. RealCold has two other significant cold storage projects in-development including a 386,000 square foot facility in Lakeland, FL, and a 312,000 square foot facility in Lockhart, TX. Both the Lakeland and Lockhart facilities will be available for occupancy in the first quarter of 2025. Upon completion of the three under-construction projects, RealCold will operate nearly 1.6 million square feet of cold storage space across eight sites coast-to-coast.

Keith Goldsmith, chief executive of RealCold, lauded the groundbreaking as a win for the region and for existing and future customers, stating “We are thrilled to kickoff this project in East Hanover which is in no small part due to our various partners whose collaboration led us to this premier site in northern New Jersey. Our collective research, input from customers, and demand from the market, has reinforced that this is the most strategic location to bring significant cold storage on-line. We believe it will be a game-changer for importers/exporters, grocers, food manufacturers, and online retailers with operations in the region.”

Michael Winston, managing director at Related Fund Management (RFM) and sponsor of RealCold, echoed the sentiment, noting “We are fortunate to have had an opportunity to secure this property in such a highly coveted market, and thank those who have worked to make today a reality. We are proud of the vision we have for this site—a modern facility that has been engineered with exacting standards and optimized to service the demands of the food industry for years to come.

The groundbreaking marks a transformation for the land as noted by Ed Russo, president of Russo Development: “A complex redevelopment such as this one – where a portion of an active property is transitioned – requires an enormous amount of collaboration. In this case, we and our partners at Onyx and RFM were fortunate to work with a great team at Novartis and the Township of East Hanover, blending a set of interests that became a common mission.”

Once complete, the Class A facility will have five fully convertible rooms offering temperatures from -20°F to +55°F. To accommodate high throughput volumes, the building will have over 40 dock doors, a 70ft refrigerated dock, 50’ clearance, and ample secured trailer parking. Additionally, it will be a LEED Silver certified facility, reinforcing RealCold’s commitment to sustainability (the Company’s other development projects in Lakeland and Lockhart are also LEED Silver). Supporting RealCold’s e-commerce fulfillment solutions, the facility will have dedicated areas for direct-to-consumer (DTC) activities and value-added services. This addition to the RealCold network will allow the Company to reach tens of millions of consumers more quickly, contributing to an overall nationwide reach of 97% of U.S consumers in 2 days or less for its robust DTC platform.

In addition to RealCold’s 380,000 square feet of cold storage space, the project will also deliver 220,000 square feet of Class A, 40’ clear dry industrial space that is available for lease. CBRE’s Kevin Dudley and Chad Hillyer are handling the marketing.

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