Carteret, NJ – Mayor Dan Reiman and the Economic Development Office have announced that Graybar Electric Co., a Fortune 500 Company, has become the latest business to locate to Carteret, and now occupies the IPORT-12 facilities at N.J. Turnpike Interchange 12.
In 2006, Mayor Reiman joined with representatives from Panatonni Development, to break ground for the IPORT-12 project, which is now the largest light industrial facility in Carteret. The redevelopment has been part of the state’s “Portfields Initiatives,” and was constructed on Brownfields sites that previously contained 113 acres of inactive landfills.
Graybar Electric occupies 136,000 of the 200,000 sq. ft. comprising the property’s first structure, and provides distribution of electrical products to service providers throughout the region. According to company representatives, three other distribution centers in Parsippany, Long Island, and Hauppauge, were relocated and consolidated within the Carteret facility.
IPORT-12 includes two buildings totaling 1.2 million sq. ft..
The facility boasts state-of-the-art technology, including paperless offices and “Flexi” lifts equipped with touch-screens enabling operators to access to the company’s products more quickly, and allowing for additional storage space.
The facility is managed and operated by a staff of 45 employees.
Graybar Electric is an employee-owned company (formerly Western Electric), and operates a network of 250 distribution centers throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico as well as authorized agents around the world. Graybar Electric Company, Inc. is engaged internationally in the distribution of electrical, telecommunications and networking products and integrated supply services primarily to contractors, industrial plants, telephone companies, power utilities and commercial users. All the products Graybar sells are purchased from others. Through its suppliers, Graybar provides products such as boxes & fittings, business telephone systems, cabinets and racks, cabling management and pathways, chemicals and adhesives, communications wire, cable and fiber conduit, raceway and fasteners, controls and motors, copper connectivity solutions, distribution equipment, enclosures and industrial products, fiber connectivity solutions, heating and ventilating, industrial automation and control lamps, lighting and ballasts, life safety and signaling, networking and wireless, power distribution, security and notification, products terminating, splicing and grounding, testing instruments, tools and installation products, voice and accessory products, wire and cable, wiring devices, and protection and power conditioning for a number of markets and industries including contractors, electrical contractors, communications contractors, government, industrial security, service providers, and retailer hospitality solutions.
Sales for 2007 were more than $5.25 billion, positioning Graybar at #455 on the Fortune 500 listing and #55 for privately-held companies. From January 1 to June 30, 2008, Graybar posted profit of $47.4 million on revenue of $2.7 billion for the six-month period, up from a profit of $39.7 million, on revenue of $2.6 billion for the same period in 2007. In 2008 Graybar was named the “most admired” Fortune 500 Company in the Wholesalers: Diversified category. In 2008, Graybar rose to the #439 spot on the Fortune 500 listing. Graybar remains an independent distributor and is still one of the largest employee-owned companies in the United States.
Located immediately off the New Jersey Turnpike, and adjacent to the Turnpike Authority’s $130 million Interchange 12 improvements, Graybar’s IPort-12 facility is approximately 15 minutes from Port Elizabeth, 20 minutes from Newark International Airport, and 35 minutes from New York City.
The landfills, which were closed in 1981, were the location where, in 1994, former Governor Whitman signed the “Landfill Reclamation District Act.” Plans to remediate and redevelop the site had stalled for 12 years, and had previously included proposals for a shopping mall. Since then the N.J. E.D.A. awarded a $38.5 million low-interest loan through the N.J. Environmental Infrastructure Trust Fund to cap the Brownfields zone, and redevelopment was performed under the Reiman administration.
Panatonni, the 3rd largest industrial developer in the United States, has invested $150 million in the project, which offers distribution, manufacturing, and import/export facilities.
The I-Port 12 International Trade & Logistics Center is a 1.1 million square foot, state-of-the-art facility directly off of the New Jersey Turnpike at Exit 12 in Carteret. In addition to major highway access, it is within four miles of the Port of Newark and Newark/Liberty Airport and is located in the Foreign Trade Zone. Part of the state’s Smart Growth model, it involved a three-phase, $100 million redevelopment of a total of 120 acres.
“For decades this landfill represented a major obstacle towards continuing economic development in Carteret,” Mayor Reiman stated. “Previous administrations and state programs failed to adequately recognize and make use of the landfill’s potential, leading to proposals involving malls and shopping centers that proved impracticable to develop, or otherwise never came to fruition. Through state and local initiatives, including that of the Urban Enterprise Zone, remediation efforts on the part of the D.E.P., and partnerships with private sector developers, we have successfully put these 113 acres back to use for Carteret and New Jersey, with companies like Graybar leading the way towards continued economic development.”
