Thor Equities Group has completed a plan to overhaul 95 Greene St., a 350,000-square-foot building in Jersey City, where it aims to attract life sciences users. Those plans include extensive upgrades to mechanicals, HVAC, vertical conduits and a new rooftop generator, along with a new prebuilt lab suite on the third floor. — Courtesy: Thor/JLL
By Joshua Burd
New Jersey’s life sciences sector is poised for continued growth in 2024, following a year in which the industry was a key source of demand for commercial real estate owners.
A new report by JLL said as much, noting that pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms in 2023 were involved in a host of high-profile deals for office, laboratory and manufacturing space in the state. That included major office leases in Morristown and Summit by Sanofi and Kenvue, the Johnson & Johnson consumer health spinoff, as well as Cellares’ debut of a new 118,000-square-foot plant in Bridgewater, where the company will manufacture tens of thousands of cell therapy drug products per year.
That demand is likely to persist this year, JLL said, as other companies in the industry look to expand while upgrading their space.
“Looking ahead, flight-to-quality migration is expected to drive space requirements in the life sciences market, as tenants shed outdated workspaces and relocate their operations into new developments and recently renovated buildings offering premium amenities,” Stephen Jenco, the firm’s director of New Jersey office research, wrote in the report.
The research noted that pharmaceutical and life sciences companies were active in their pursuit of high-end office and lab spaces in 2023, accounting for more than 20 percent of leases signed in New Jersey. That was the biggest share of activity among the top business sectors, while life science tenants inked two out of the five largest office deals in the state during the past year.
One of those companies, Sanofi, will lease 260,000 square feet of new space that’s currently under construction at SJP Properties’ M Station project in Morristown. Kenvue, meantime, leased 191,450 square feet for its global headquarters at Onyx Equities’ Summit East campus, where it’s also slated to occupy a new ground-up 100,000-square-foot lab facility.
Thor Equities Group also saw continued demand at 95 Greene St. in Jersey City, a nearly 351,000-square-foot former office building that it repositioned for life sciences users. The latest activity at the property include International AIDS Vaccine Initiative’s 29,780-square-foot lease, as well as RegenLab USA’s plan to occupy 15,790 square feet on the sixth floor after relocating from Brooklyn.
Cellares, for its part, is now operating in Bridgewater after recently marking the debut of its first commercial-scale facility. The investment has brought new life to a former Pfizer property at 95 Corporate Drive, creating a plant that can produce 40,000 cell therapy batches a year, thanks to $255 million in Series C funding.
“The opening of this facility marks a tremendous milestone towards Cellares’ mission of accelerating access to life-saving cell therapies to meet total global patient demand,” John Tomtishen, senior vice president and general manager of what’s known as the Bridgewater IDMO Smart Factory, said at the facility’s opening in late January. “We look forward to partnering with the state and local community to create 350 job opportunities for highly talented individuals as we bring the facility online to manufacture tens of thousands of cell therapy drug products per year.”
