OVERVIEW

In today’s commercial real estate industry, many firms that previously had a strictly defined geographical range are looking beyond their traditional areas of operation to leverage their expertise to help close deals in new regions. The competitiveness of northern New Jersey’s industrial market and the area’s importance to e-commerce and logistics operators has meant that real estate professionals from this market have become trusted partners for projects in locations far beyond the state’s borders.

With decades of experience in the northern N.J. market, NAI James E. Hanson’s Vice President, Global Supply Chain & Ports, Steve Pastor, has become one of the nation’s leading experts on rail-served industrial real estate projects and strategic counsel for some of the nation’s most prominent railroads. Pastor was tapped by developers to help market a brand new 10,000,000-square-foot Class-A rail-served industrial park in El Campo, TX, a town 80 miles outside of the Port of Houston. The project was unique in both its scope and location as many industrial parks of this size tend to emerge around ports or in major metro areas.

CHALLENGE

R&J Strategic Communications was tasked with introducing their client, NAI James E. Hanson, a Teterboro, N.J.-based full-service commercial real estate brokerage, to this market while also positioning the unique value proposition of the development project among national decisionmakers. However, the breakneck pace of national commercial real estate development, particularly in the industrial sector, can often make it difficult to secure media placements for projects and El Campo’s more remote location added another layer of difficulty in securing media coverage.

STRATEGY

Despite a competitive market and a challenging location, R&J recognized the project’s compelling story which, if messaged properly, could resonate with regional and national audiences. Through generating media coverage about the project, R&J hoped to attract interested tenants and showcase the unique capabilities of our client.

ACTION

R&J targeted two of the most influential publications in the logistics business as media targets, Inbound Logistics and Site Selection Magazine, as well as the Houston Business Journal, the area’s most prominent business publication. Our expertise in CRE enabled us to leverage news surrounding cross-border trade and the ongoing national industrial space shortage to develop a pitch focused around these two topics that would both introduce Pastor and NAI James E. Hanson while explaining why the project was so unique.

R&J was able to quickly arrange interviews with Inbound Logistics and Site Selection Magazine for Pastor for their upcoming issues on cross-border trade and industrial development. The interviews resulted in full-page stories focused on the El Campo project and showcased Pastor’s deep knowledge of modern railroad operations and industrial tenants’ needs. Additionally, the groundbreaking for the project was featured in the Houston Business Journal.

CONCLUSION

Through a proactive and strategic media relations campaign and our deep experience in the CRE industry, R&J was able to effectively cut through the noise in the industrial real estate sector to reach our client’s target audiences. The featured media placement in Site Selection Magazine reached a circulation of 47,600 business leaders, 3,074 of which are based in Texas and 28,512 of which held the title of CEO, partner, chairman, president or owner. In addition, the Inbound Logistics’ placement reached thousands of additional decisionmakers. In the regional market, the placement in the Houston Business Journal reached their 17,512 paid subscribers as well as their 591,229 monthly unique web visitors.

R&J was also able to leverage the opportunities through sharing the stories on social media reaching 7,682 people across Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Through R&J’s media relations efforts, NAI James E. Hanson has established itself as a leading authority on one of the nation’s largest industrial projects in a market well beyond N.J. Through positioning Pastor as an authority on the topics of cross-border trade and freight rail, R&J also ensured that he will be a key media source for ongoing coverage of these emerging trends.