115 Tabor Road in Morris Plains — Courtesy: CBRE
By Joshua Burd
A global health services company is taking down a major piece of the former Honeywell International campus in Morris Plains, where it will reportedly lease some 200,000 square feet.
Cigna Corp., which is based in Bloomfield, Connecticut, will move roughly 2,100 employees to the property at 115 Tabor Road, most of whom will come from an office in Bergen County that is home to its Evernorth subsidiary. The transaction will backfill nearly half of the 465,000-square-foot property, which Manhattan-based Argent Ventures LLC acquired late last year.
A Cigna representative confirmed some details of the move, which was first reported Thursday by ROI-NJ.
“We continually assess our operations to ensure we are best meeting the needs of our business, customers and clients,” the company said in a prepared statement. “As a result of our ongoing analysis, we are securing new office space in Morris Plains that offers the accessibility, flexibility, and conveniences that suits the needs of our employees. Most of the Evernorth employees that currently work at our Franklin Lakes site, which has been listed for sale, will eventually relocate to our new Morris Plains office.”
Located off Route 202 and minutes from downtown Morristown, 115 Tabor Road had served as Honeywell’s headquarters since 2015, following a high-profile move from nearby Morris Township. The technology giant at the time had considered a move to Pennsylvania, but opted to stay after Gov. Chris Christie famously stepped in and secured a $40 million tax credit to keep the company in New Jersey.
After moving in, Honeywell announced in late 2018 that it was relocating its headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina, though it pledged to keep some 800 employees in Morris Plains. Argent Ventures acquired the property late last year as part of a sale and partial leaseback with the Fortune 100 company, subsequently rebranding the campus as The Crossing at Tabor Road.
A CBRE brokerage team including Sean Morley, Edward DaCosta and EJ DaCosta said earlier this year that they were marketing some 250,000 square feet of furnished space at the property, which is home to a high-end fitness center with a yoga studio, multi-room conference centers with town hall seating for 400 guests, a café and bocce and basketball courts, among other amenities. The property also includes parking for more than 1,000 cars.
For Cigna, the site will include a mix of on-site, flex and work-from-home employees. As the future home of Evernorth, a health services business, the team in Morris Plains will also include the Express Scripts brand.
Carl Eriksen, also of CBRE, reportedly represented the tenant in the deal.
Argent taps CBRE as leasing agent at ex-Honeywell campus in Morris Plains
