Arkinetics at the Industrial Real Estate Conference 2014
As architects, understanding the current issues that our industrial clients face puts us in a better position to design their facilities. Which is why last week, Arkinetics Principal Frank Castrovillari attended the I.CON Industrial Conference in Jersey City, New Jersey. The conference is geared toward the industrial real estate sector and provides industry trends, insight from experts, and networking with top industrial leaders across the nation.
The conference kicked off with two tours of state of the art facilities. The first, the Goya Foods Distribution Facility, is a 631,000 square foot structure built on a 40 acre brownfield site that will serve as the company’s main distribution center and corporate headquarters.
The second facility tour was the Macy’s Parade Studio, a creative space that employs 100 skilled artisans and technicians who plan, design, and build the floats and balloons in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The build-to-suit development sits on a 7.77 acre site in New Jersey. The large facility enables float construction and tear down, giant balloon inflation, and storage of “retired” parade pieces over several years. One interesting fact learned during this tour was that all Macy’s Parade floats must be built so they can be easily and quickly taken apart and put back together on the day of the parade in order to navigate New York streets and tunnels.
The rest of the conference program was filled with informational seminars that included the evolution and decentralization of warehousing and distribution facilities, the current uptick in industrial development and what’s driving it, and the impact of global politics on industrial real estate.
This was the third year that NAIOP, a commercial real estate development association, has held this annual conference. It was the first year Arkinetics attended. Due to the relevant content and relationships formed at this event, Arkinetics plans on attending in the years to come.
June 12, 2014