Top executives and public officials gathered Thursday, Sept. 4, to break ground on Nokia Bell Labs’ new 10-story, 370,000-square-foot research and office tower in New Brunswick. — Photos by John O’Boyle/Courtesy: New Brunswick Development Corp.
By Joshua Burd
It was only fitting that the groundbreaking for Nokia Bell Labs’ new research and office tower in New Brunswick would end with two speakers taking the podium, rather than one.
After all, as Chris Paladino made clear, the latest addition to the city’s HELIX campus is intended for collaboration — specifically, the type that has fueled innovation at Bell Labs for a century and given rise to some of the world’s consequential technologies.
“Both leaders appreciate that research is not a straight line,” Paladino, president of New Brunswick Development Corp., said as he introduced top Bell Labs research executives Thierry Klein and Peter Vetter. “It’s more like a labyrinth of maybes. Scientists live in uncertainty, and Peter and Thierry, as leaders of scientists, nurture curiosity. And I’ve heard them say … while committed to their research, Bell Labs scientists are encouraged to remain curious — to look right, to look left for things waiting to be discovered.
“In short, I’ve heard Thierry say, ‘Someone else’s noise is someone else’s signal.’ The culture of collaboration fostered by Thierry and Peter will supercharge the HELIX ecosystem.”
The new Nokia Bell Labs tower, one of the state’s most highly anticipated projects, will soon take shape after top executives and public officials broke ground in early September on the 10-story, 370,000-square-foot building directly across from the New Brunswick train station. The event was a celebration of the company’s legacy in New Jersey — and the prospect of continuing that innovation for decades to come when it opens the new facility in 2028 — along with the public-private partnerships that have brought the project to life.
Located at Albany and Spring streets, the tower will be home to an estimated 1,000 employees from the iconic research team and business unit that has spent more than 80 years in the Murray Hill section of Union County. It’s also the second phase of the four-acre Health + Life Science Exchange or HELIX campus spearheaded by New Brunswick Development Corp., meaning those researchers will be exposed to hundreds of other individuals associated with academia, health care and technology.
“(This) is much, much more than just a move of a building,” said Klein, president of Bell Labs Solutions Research at Nokia. “This is really us recommitting to innovation — recommitting to innovation in New Jersey — and we’re very proud of our history.”
The tower’s steel frame will be visible as soon as next spring. Steve Pozycki of SJP Properties, the project’s developer, noted that the team has already completed the foundations and will have two levels of concrete in place by December. But he also touted key features for a building that will be “designed for the most advanced electronic experimentation in North America” and other innovations, including a second floor with a four-foot slab for vibration controls.
“The decision to come to New Brunswick was for their employees and their future,” Pozycki, SJP’s founder and CEO, said during the Sept. 4 event. “And clearly, getting people back to work, fostering collaboration and helping attract the top talent is what New Brunswick will offer because of the many benefits that New Brunswick brings to the table.”
Nokia Bell Labs will lease the facility from SJP as part of the three-phase HELIX campus. And the building is set to rise alongside the complex’s nearly completed first phase, which will house the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, an incubator known as the New Jersey Innovation Hub and a facility for top researchers from Rutgers across some 574,000 square feet.
“The ecosystem is so important to collaboration,” Klein said, citing the prosect of partnering with the many top-tier research universities that will have a presence at the HELIX. He also recalled an email he sent earlier in the day to Vetter, president of Bell Labs Core Research, in which he wrote that “collaboration is not a transaction.”
“Collaboration is a mindset and a belief,” he said. “It’s a belief that you can do better when you work together, so we’re really bringing that spirit of collaboration to New Brunswick and we hope to learn from all of you.”
To be sure, coordination and partnerships have been integral to the HELIX project since long before Nokia Bell Labs committed to the site. Those on hand for the groundbreaking included company executives as well as Gov. Phil Murphy, New Brunswick Mayor Jim Cahill, New Jersey Economic Development Authority CEO Tim Sullivan and Middlesex County Commissioner Director Ron Rios. Each has played a central role in the development of the HELIX and the victory that was attracting Nokia Bell Labs, as the speakers noted, part of a journey that began roughly a decade ago when Devco and city officials set out to redevelop the hulking, concrete Ferren Mall and parking deck across from the train station.
Cahill, for his part, credited Murphy for taking a step in March 2018 that jumpstarted those efforts — declaring that the site would become a new innovation hub to attract and nurture technology and life sciences in New Jersey and signaling the state’s full support.
“That moment sparked these projects, and the tremendous efforts of so many, led by Governor Murphy, have taken us to where we are today,” Cahill said. “But the HELIX is far more than a set of buildings. It’s a transformational district uniting health care, education, life sciences, innovation, entrepreneurship and community — redefining our state, our county and our city as a major global innovation hub.
“Having Nokia Bell Lab settle its headquarters here will have a lasting impact on our city’s identity and economy for generations to come.”
