A 65-Year-Old Northeast Philly Manufacturer Is Leaving 445,000 Square Feet Behind

Jerith Manufacturing, the aluminum fence maker that's operated in Northeast Philadelphia since 1951, is ending operations at 14400 McNulty Road in the Byberry East Industrial Park. Keith Armour said in an August 28 announcement that the company's operating model is evolving, while its commitment to the Jerith brand, its customers and U.S. manufacturing remains unchanged. The closure runs in phases through the second quarter of 2027, with some work moving to New Jersey and Oklahoma.

The building itself changed hands in October 2020, when Ivy Realty, a Greenwich, Connecticut investor, paid $20 million for the 445,000 square foot facility in an off-market deal, buying it from Moondance Enterprises, Jerith's own former ownership entity. ASSA ABLOY Group had already acquired the Jerith brand in 2017. That split, an out-of-state landlord owning the real estate while a global parent company runs the manufacturing, is exactly the setup where a rent number gets renegotiated on the landlord's terms.

445,000 square feet doesn't get built new in Northeast Philadelphia anymore. This is a rare-sized industrial box coming open in phases over the next year and a half, inside a park with direct access to I-95, I-276 and Route 1. Whoever gets ahead of that vacancy, rather than waiting for it to hit the listing services in 2027, has the run of one of the larger blocks of industrial space to trade hands in this submarket in years.

More on this submarket: Northeast Philadelphia commercial real estate.