Plans for H-3 (background), a 42-story tower at the corner of Paterson and Kirkpatrick streets in New Brunswick, call for 265 apartments across 298,390 square feet as well as 264,446 square feet of commercial office and specialized laboratory space to be leased by Middlesex County and Rutgers University and housing for Rutgers School of Medicine students. — Renderings by Elkus Manfredi Architects / Courtesy: New Brunswick Development Corp.
By Joshua Burd
A new project that would bring 265 apartments, office and laboratory space and housing for medical students to the emerging HELIX campus in New Brunswick is moving ahead with a newly approved, $359 million tax credit award under the state’s Aspire program.
An affiliate of New Brunswick Development Corp., the project’s master developer, secured the approval on Wednesday during a New Jersey Economic Development Authority board meeting. That sets the stage for a projected April groundbreaking for the planned 42-story, 562,836-square-foot tower at the corner of Paterson and Kirkpatrick streets and directly across from the New Brunswick train station, with construction slated to last around 36 months.
Known as H-3, the building will be a joint venture between Devco and Pennrose and will include four main components, according to the EDA:
- The Residences @ HELIX, a 298,390-square-foot residential portion with 212 market-rate and 53 affordable apartments, plus amenities
- A new home for Rutgers University’s Wireless Information Network Laboratory and Energy Storage Research Group, which will consolidate into 33,620 square feet of dedicated research space within H-3
- More than 52,000 square feet of dedicated student housing for Rutgers School of Medicine students, creating a living-learning environment that integrates researchers, entrepreneurs and faculty within the HELIX ecosystem
- 178,522 square feet of commercial office space that will be leased to Middlesex County to accommodate various county departments and administrative functions
“It really does round out an ecosystem where we hope that creative collisions occur,” said Chris Paladino, Devco’s president, allowing researchers to collaborate everywhere from a lab or a conference room to the bar at a restaurant or the resident’s lounge at H-3.
The new tower will open alongside the first two phases of what’s formally known as the Health + Life Science Exchange, a transformative campus spanning four acres in the heart of downtown. They include the nearly complete, 574,000-square-foot H-1 tower that will house Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, a new Rutgers University facility for elite researchers and an incubator known as the New Jersey Innovation HUB, as well as the new 10-story, 370,000-square-foot tower for Nokia Bell Labs that broke ground in early September under a partnership between Devco and SJP Properties.
The estimated total development cost of H-3 is roughly $485.1 million, according to the EDA. The $359.4 million Aspire award represents 80 percent of about $449 million of eligible costs under the program, which is recognizing the new tower as a so-called transformative project due to several key criteria, making it eligible for larger subsidies.
The authority has noted with past approvals that Aspire, which was created by the New Jersey Economic Recovery Act of 2020, is a place-based economic development program to support mixed-use, transit-oriented development with tax credits to commercial and residential projects that have financing gaps. As a performance-based program, projects must certify that all commitments established at time of approval have been met before receiving their first disbursement of tax credits.
This is a developing story. Please check back to Real Estate NJ later today and tomorrow for additional updates.
First phase of New Brunswick’s HELIX campus enters final stages of construction (VIDEO)
