H-1, the first phase of the Health + Life Science Exchange of New Jersey district in New Brunswick, is under construction (right) at Albany and Spring streets and is slated for full completion in spring 2026. Also pictured is the construction site (left) for a planned 10-story, 370,000-square-foot tower for Nokia Bell Labs. — Courtesy: New Brunswick Development Corp.
By Joshua Burd
The landmark HELIX NJ project is approaching another milestone, with only six months to go until the district’s first building makes its full-fledged debut in downtown New Brunswick.
Known as H-1, the 574,000-square-foot tower is entering the final stages of construction at Albany and Spring streets and just across from the New Brunswick train station. The roughly 1.2-acre site will soon be home to the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a new Rutgers University facility for elite researchers, along with an incubator known as the New Jersey Innovation HUB that will cater to startups of all shapes and sizes with a mix of open lab systems and individual spaces.
The project’s master developer, New Brunswick Development Corp., expects to open the 12-story building by April. That will activate the campus formally known as the Health + Life Science Exchange, where plans call for two additional phases across some four acres, with an influx of doctors, nurses, scientists, entrepreneurs and others who will populate the building.
The second phase, a new 10-story, 370,000-square-foot tower for Nokia Bell Labs, is under construction just south H-1 as part of a partnership with SJP Properties. City officials, meantime, recently designated a Devco affiliate as the redeveloper for the tract that will house a 42-story building with offices, lab spaces, housing for 100 Rutgers medical students and 265 apartments, TAPintoNew Brunswick reported, representing the HELIX’s third phase.
According to the website, Devco is teaming with Pennrose for the estimated $485 million project, which will span roughly 552,000 square feet on Paterson Street.
“We’re creating an ecosystem, not building buildings, building laboratories, building offices,” Devco President Chris Paladino told TAPintoNew Brunswick. “It’s a place where people can collaborate. And with H3, the ecosystem will truly become a 24/7 place where people will be able to work and live.”
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