Crate and Barrel to build 650,000-SF distribution center.

Crate and Barrel, a home furnishing and housewares retailer, will build a new distribution center in Cranbury, just off the New Jersey Turnpike.

Meanwhile, industrial parts distributor W.W. Grainger, now based at Exit 8A of the New Jersey Turnpike, will upgrade to a much larger, 435,000-SF warehouse under construction in Washington Township at North-East Business Park.

The Crate and Barrel distribution center will be located in a 650,000-SF facility at the Rockefeller Group Foreign Trade Zone and will consist of two buildings and a factory outlet. The Rockefeller site is a 150-acre warehouse and distribution park. Construction of the facility is expected to begin in March. Crate and Barrel operates 117 stores.

W.W. Grainger officials said their new site will be equipped with two miles of conveyor belts to assist workers with filling orders.

W.W. Grainger needs a bigger facility so it can house additional inventory said Mike McGrew, spokesman for the company.

W.W. Grainger, a Lake Forest, Ill.-based company, aims to find a tenant for its existing, 289,000-SF facility at the CenterPoint industrial park at Exit 8A of the Turnpike.

Matrix Development Group, a real estate investment company, said it expects to complete construction of the W.W. Grainger warehouse in April.

The warehouse is about 65% completed and inbound shipments at the new warehouse will be received by mid-January 2004. The warehouse will be fully operational by March 2004.

Occupancy at CenterPoint - a 5 million-SF industrial warehouse park managed by Matrix is about 98%, including W. W. Grainger. The rate will likely dip 5% once the company is gone.