This article appeared originally on NJBIZ.

A Cresa team recently represented Russo Development in a full-building lease for a data center in Carlstadt, NJBIZ has exclusively learned.

The confidential tenant will occupy 249,640 square feet at 600 Commerce Blvd. In addition to its proximity to New York City, the property’s immediate and meaningful compute capacity drew the occupant.

A Cresa Data Center Capital Markets & Advisory team comprising President and Market Leader Michael Morris, Managing Principal Sumner Putnam, Senior Analyst Kensey Gawne and Associate Matt Deutsch worked with Russo.

Over the past several years, Morris has completed nearly 1 million square feet of transactions in the region with the firm. Russo is one of the largest owners of data center space in the New York metro area.

Based in Carlstadt, for now, Russo Development has completed more than 2 million square feet of data center space. The company’s clients include JPMorgan Chase, Bloomberg and Credit Suisse.

The firm purpose-built this Bergen County site in 2008 for a global bank. Featuring state-of-the-art architecture, the property has received continual upgrades to meet the demands of enterprise-scale users.

This nearly 250,000-square-foot Bergen County site has continually received upgrades to keep pace with industry demands.

New Jersey data center demand persists

The New Jersey data center market has more than doubled since 2020, according to JLL. In a midyear 2025 report, it described the state as “quietly” pushing into the nation’s top five markets with a total vacancy rate of 4%.

JLL pegged area rental rates for 1–5 megawatts in the $145–$225 range. Who does the available – and coming – space work best for? Edge and AI inference deployments along with financial services inference applications, according to the report.

In the sector, the Meadowlands submarket holds distinction as an in-demand and well-established region.

“As the need for power and data center capacity reaches new levels daily, major markets such as New Jersey will continue to see record-breaking absorption,” Morris told NJBIZ.

“Russo Development, one of the leading, mission-critical developers in the northeast, is well-positioned to serve this insatiable demand,” he said.

In 2024, then-Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation enacting Next New Jersey, to support and spur data center development here. The program provides up to $500 million in tax credits to AI businesses, including large-scale artificial intelligence data centers. Like the one CoreWeave is building in Kenilworth.

The Livingston-based company received the state’s first Next New Jersey AI in fall 2025, Real Estate NJ reported. The $250 million tax credit supports construction on a nearly $1.8 billion data center coming to the Northeast Science and Technology Center (NEST).