Central 9 Logistics Park is a blockbuster industrial project even for New Jersey, a national hub for distribution centers and warehouses.
Edison, New Jersey-based 2020 Acquisitions' development in Old Bridge is slated to have nine buildings with roughly 4.2 million square feet of space when it's completed. The first phase of the project was finished in 2024, with four buildings constructed totaling 1.9 million square feet. The state-of-the-art industrial park spans 800 acres and has created over 2,000 jobs, a transformational project that's boosting the regional economy.
That's why Central 9 Logistics Park has been selected by a panel of industry professionals as the 2025 CoStar Impact Awards commercial development of the year for Northern New Jersey.
The project has already received accolades in the Garden State, winning the 2024 United Way New Jersey Industrial Impact Award and the 2024 NAOIP New Jersey Industrial Deal of the Year award.
There has been tension between municipalities and developers following a surge of warehouse projects in New Jersey. But Efrem Gerszberg, the sole principal and president of 2020 Acquisitions, worked closely with the township of Old Bridge to have his project come to fruition. With that $35 million public-private partnership, Gerszberg was able to assemble a large swath of vacant land — rare in the Garden State — and win local approvals for Central 9 Logistics Park. The project also received a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, award for 30 years, ensuring local tax stability.
About the project: Gerszberg struck a deal to acquire a parcel of land from Old Bridge in exchange for building an 18-hole public golf course, the Old Bridge Golf Club at Rose-Lambertson, for the township. As part of its partnership with the township, 2020 Acquistions made other contributions to the community, including millions of dollars of road improvements and $100,000 toward a new firehouse.
One of the Central 9 Logistics Park buildings completed in 2024, 600 Fairway Lane, was leased to Discovery SCM, a Chinese third-party logistics provider. And Paragon Packaging, a woman-owned business, signed the inaugural lease for the new industrial park — for Building 2 at 200 Fairway Lane — in 2023. That's one of two buildings slated for the logistics park's second phase. Cushman & Wakefield is handling leasing for the development.
What the judges said: Based on its sheer size alone, Central 9 Logistics Park is an impactful project, according to Andrew Moss, director of leasing and acquisitions at Forsgate Industrial Partners. "Very few commercial developm ents of this size come along every few years," said Joseph Nicholson, Montclair State University associate professor, hospitality and tourism.
They made it happen: Efrem Gerszberg, principal, 2020 Acquisitions; and for Cushman & Wakefield, Mindy Lissner, vice chair, William Waxman, vice chair, David Gheriani, executive director, Jeff Volpi, director, Morgan Nitti, director, Mike Ugarte, senior associate.