The Liberty Science Center welcomed public officials and business leaders on Friday, Oct. 22, to mark the start of a sweeping, $300 million expansion that will add a new business incubator, a high school and 400 apartments to its campus in Jersey City. — Courtesy: Governor’s Office
By Joshua Burd
The Liberty Science Center has broken ground on a sweeping, $300 million expansion that will add a new business incubator, a high school and 400 apartments to its campus in Jersey City.
The museum and learning center on Friday joined public officials and business leaders, including some top commercial real estate executives, to mark the start of what it calls SciTech Scity, where it hopes to launch and grow innovative science and technology firms and reshape public school science education. The first pieces of the new 30-acre campus will soon rise across the street from the 28-year-old facility on Jersey City Boulevard, with the potential to open starting in late 2023.
“We’re not breaking ground on just any new buildings today,” Gov. Phil Murphy said. “When we turn over our shovels, we will be breaking ground on an entirely new and exciting world of possibilities in education, in innovation and in partnership and collaboration — and not just for Jersey City or Liberty Science Center, but for our entire state. Everything we will need to make New Jersey a global leader in innovation and technology, from education onward, will be right here on this campus.”
The first phase of the project will comprise four components, including an eight-story business incubator known as Edge Works with a conference center and a technology exhibition gallery. The facility will also have some 60,000 square feet of research and development labs, workspaces and co-working areas for dozens of startups, along with collaboration spaces, product showcases, consumer testing labs and offices for select well-established companies.
“We’re building a business optimizer that’s a new breed of innovation center that’s both going to maximize commercial success and social impact,” said Paul Hoffman, the science center’s CEO and president. “We want to jumpstart the creation of early-stage science and technology companies that, if they are successful, will radically change the world, will make the world a great, better place. And what’s wonderful about an incubator is that, if you look at the statistics, 70 percent of the companies that make it out of an incubator set up permanent shop within five miles of where they’re birthed. So that should bring a lot of jobs here to Jersey City and New Jersey.”
Plans also call for a public Liberty Science Center High School that will provide science, technology, engineering and math education to some 400 Hudson County students, who will have access to the users at Edge Works, according to a news release. Elsewhere on the site, the science center has tapped Alpine Residential to develop some 400 apartments geared toward scientists, entrepreneurs, graduate students and individuals and families that want to be part of the SciTech Scity community, who will be able to test new high-tech products in their homes before the rest of the world.
Additionally, phase one is slated to include four acres of outdoor space, with an events plaza for performances, concerts, maker fairs, farmers markets, large participatory science experiments, hackathons, art projects and food truck festivals.
In describing the project, Hoffman noted that it will occupy land that was donated by the city of Jersey City in 2017, adding that Mayor Steven Fulop challenged him at the time to develop a use that was truly ambitious and transformative. To be sure, the mayor said it was critical to have something of scale and impact to go along with the many other high-profile projects taking place in the city — from commercial construction to new investments in arts and culture.
“We wanted to make Jersey City further a destination place to attract people, regardless of where you are, from beyond this region to come here, knowing about what was happening here,” Fulop said. “So we started off on this course to where we are today.”
The second-term mayor praised the city council for backing the project in the face of vocal opposition, while thanking Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise and other county leaders for supporting the high school concept. Like other speakers on Friday, Fulop also cited the all-important role of business and philanthropic leaders that helped fund and guide the expansion.
That includes Frank Guarini, the former U.S. Congressman, New Jersey state senator, developer and philanthropist from Jersey City, who gifted $10 million to LSC toward the creation of Edge Works, the news release said. The donation, the largest received to date by LSC, was matched 50 cents on the dollar by a $5 million pledge from Ironstate Development CEO David Barry, who co-chairs the center’s board alongside former EY chairman Stephen R. Howe Jr.
The center also noted that EY, Verizon, Bank of America and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey have signed on as corporate founding sponsors and made seven-figure contributions. All told, it has raised $42 million for Edge Works, with the remaining funding expected to come from financing and government sources.
“There are a lot of people to thank to get here, because it really is an example of collaboration,” Fulop said. “But today is an extremely exciting day and one of these days that we’ll look back on in 10, 20 years from now knowing that we really transformed the city, so thank you and congratulations to everybody.”
LSC cited an additional $5 million in private donations that jumpstarted the creation of Liberty Science Center High School, with Laura and John Overdeck providing a lead gift that was then matched by contributions from the Paul and Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation, Josh and Judy Weston, Joe and Millie Williams, PSEG, Norm Worthington and others. Meantime, Hudson County has pledged to float bonds to finance the school’s construction, while offering to provide operational support for the school for 30 years in tandem with Jersey City.
“We depend on having an educated population that is science- and math-literate,” Laura Overdeck said. “And this school is a huge step in that direction.”
When complete, SciTech Scity and the existing center will make up the newly named Frank J. Guarini Innovation Campus.
“We are proud to partner with Liberty Science Center in this exciting new venture,” DeGise said. “Our Schools of Technology have long been their own kind of incubator for aspiring scientists, technology innovators, and tech entrepreneurs. It is a pleasure to expand our long-held vision of science and technology education as a driver of sustainable economic growth here in Hudson County by becoming part of this remarkable global platform dedicated to that mission.”
Liberty Science Center names developer for 400 apartments at ‘SciTech Scity’ project
