Following a stint at Hartz Mountain Industries, Rick Vanderbeck has joined the brokerage Blau & Berg Co. as the Northern New Jersey industrial market faces challenges.
Vanderbeck has been named an executive director at Blau & Berg, which is based in Short Hills, New Jersey. He told CoStar News that he will handle industrial leasing and sales at his new firm, which serves the New Jersey and tristate commercial real estate market.
Vanderbeck left Hartz, headquartered in Secaucus, New Jersey, about a year ago. He had been at Hartz — which has a portfolio that includes industrial, multifamily, hospitality, office and retail properties — as a vice president of sales and leasing since November 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that, he served as president of Shax Commercial Real Estate Solutions and as director acquisitions and development for Federal Business Centers.
He joins Blau & Berg as "industrial owners across Northern New Jersey are confronting persistent supply-side pressure and subdued space demand," according to a recent CoStar market report.
In 2023, owners in the market were confronted by "the weakest demand environment in over a decade," and the lowest annual net absorption, or move-in minus move-outs since 2012, according to CoStar.
"Space demand in the first half of the year was depressed due to 24Q1's weakest quarterly showing since 2008," Mateusz Wnek, associate director of CoStar Market Analytics, wrote in the report. "After move-ins bounced back over the subsequent two quarters, preliminary leasing trends portend a lackluster end to the year, with tenant move-outs again outpacing move-ins."
Vanderbeck said he knew and enjoyed a professional relationship with Jason Crimmins, Blau & Berg president, and Alex Conte, an executive vice president and principal at the firm, and that helped lead him to join the company.
Blau & Berg, founded in 1932, is an independent, full-service commercial real estate brokerage. The firm works on site selection, acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, tenant representation, portfolio sales, asset repositioning, and property and construction consulting.