Page 14 - RE-NJ

12 MARCH 2025
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Rendering by MHS Archiecture/Courtesy: Boraie Development
FILLING THE PIPELINE
Developers lining up plans for new housing projects in New Brunswick,
seeking to meet demand from massive commercial investments
By Joshua Burd
D evelopers are laying the
groundwork for what could
be a new wave of apartment
construction in downtown New
Brunswick, seeking to meet the
needs of potentially thousands of
new employees that will come from
several transformative, large-scale
commercial projects that are now
taking shape.
That’s evident from several residential
buildings that are slated to break
ground this year and from a growing
pipeline of land use applications.
Offi cials say that, from 2022 through
2024, the city approved projects
with a combined 2,071 housing
units — nearly double the number of
apartments constructed from 2015 to
2023 — while there were another 824
units in various stages of entitlements
as of late February.
“There’s a perceived demand —
and I think it’s a real demand —
particularly
as a lot of
younger people
are coming
into the city
to work,” said
Chris Paladino,
president of
New Brunswick
Chris Paladino
Development
Corp., or Devco. The not-for-
profi t developer is behind the two
largest commercial projects under
construction in the downtown — the
12-story, 520,000-square-foot Jack
and Sheryl Morris Cancer Center at
Somerset and Division streets and
the 574,000-square-foot fi rst phase
of the HELIX campus, which will
house Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson
Medical School, a facility for elite
researchers from Rutgers University
and a 55,000-square-foot incubator —
both of which are expected to come
online this year with a combined
value exceeding $1.5 billion.
This year is also slated to bring the
start of construction for Nokia Bell
Labs’ new 360,000-square-foot lab
and offi ce tower, which will be built
by SJP Properties under the HELIX’s
second phase, in a project that would
bring 1,000 scientists, engineers and
other talent to the city by 2028.
“These are the top people in the
country,” said
Robert Weiss,
president of
New Brunswick-
based Weiss
Properties,
referring to the
workers that
will populate the
Robert Weiss
cancer center
and HELIX projects. “And if we want
them to live in New Brunswick, which
we all do, they expect a beautiful
place to live with great lifestyles and
great amenities.”
He said the few newer luxury