111 Town Square Place in Jersey City— Courtesy: LeFrak
By Joshua Burd
In a time in which access to power is at a premium — thanks largely to the needs of Big Data and artificial intelligence — a historic building in Jersey City’s Newport district has emerged as a potential destination for technology firms and other players in the space.
That’s the hope of LeFrak, the owner and developer of the acclaimed mixed-use neighborhood along the Hudson waterfront. The firm notes that the 15-story, 480,000-square-foot property at 111 Town Square Place has a capacity that is eight times the power load of a typical office building, along with other key infrastructure and a robust physical structure stemming from its past life as a warehouse.
To be sure, LeFrak had tech firms, financial services and related users in mind when it converted the building in the late 1980s.
“The plan for the building was for it to be a data center, so every decision that we made about the construction of the building was to that end,” said Charles Burton, LeFrak’s head of community affairs. He later added: “In the space of commercial brokers and the folks who line up tenants in buildings, it’s known what this building is capable of.”
Located just off Washington Boulevard, 111 Town Square Place is the longtime home of tenants such as Morgan Stanley and HSBC, which benefit from its significant power for data operations, Burton said. He added that, while less than 10 percent of the property is available, “we’re willing to work with a potential tenant to find the right space here … (and) there are several opportunities throughout the entire building.”
LeFrak has in fact engaged brokers and those representing tenants in everything from AI and ecommerce to fintech and cryptocurrency, Burton added, especially given the current buzz around the technology and Gov. Phil Murphy’s recent focus on the sector. Other key features include a concrete and steel frame construction with strong, load-bearing floor plates that can handle 300 pounds per square foot on floors one through six and 125 pounds per square foot on the upper floors, along with six 2,000-watt Caterpillar diesel generators and four 830-ton cooling towers.
Also notable, Burton said, is that the building is open 24/7 with on-site security, concierges and facilities engineers. But those offerings are all bolstered by Newport’s location, the common thread for virtually every residential or office building or the long list of other facilities and amenities in the 600-acre master-planned district.
“It’s not even just the building and the power that we have here,” he said. “It’s also the access to transit, it’s the proximity to New York City, it’s also the talent pipeline in this area.”
He added that, between Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, Rutgers University and the other schools throughout the New York metropolitan area, “we still feel like we’re at the crossroads of something special. And this is a great access point for employers.”
