The new RWJBarnabas Health Red Bulls Performance Center at 103 Columbia Road in Morris Township includes an 88,400-square-foot main building, eight full-size outdoor soccer pitches and other cutting-edge facilities and amenities for the Major League Soccer club. — All images courtesy: Red Bull New York
By Marlaina Cockcroft
How do you turn a former office campus into an 80-acre Major League Soccer athletic training center with eight pitches, a gym and a hydrotherapy pool? With years of planning and input from the neighbors.
That’s according to the team behind the RWJBarnabas Health Red Bulls Performance Center in Morris Township, which marked its grand opening on April 22 with a ribbon-cutting, speeches and parachutists from the Red Bull Air Force. The fanfare was fitting for such a momentous day — the culmination of plans to update the club’s facilities and help grow youth soccer — but especially after a multiyear effort to find and secure the perfect site.
“We converted, really, 99 percent of the residents,” said Nicholas Racioppi Jr., an attorney for the project and chair of the real estate group at Riker Danzig LLP, recalling the proactive outreach that helped build support for the proposal, despite early pushback.
He added: “This is one of the first times something like this was built in or next to a residential area,” so it was an educational process to address the public’s concerns by the time the township held a public hearing and granted site plan approval in 2023.
Located at 103 Columbia Road, the complex will provide training and medical services for Red Bull New York, which plays at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, with an 88,400-square-foot main building, eight full-size outdoor soccer pitches and other cutting-edge facilities and amenities. In addition to the Red Bull first and second teams, the complex is home to the Red Bull New York Academy and Youth Training programs.
Those groups have access to a mix of heated, irrigated natural grass and turf surfaces with one 350-seat match field designated for academy games, plus outdoor areas equipped with advanced training technology including multi-angle camera tracking systems for analytics and player development.
“This is where the future of this club will take shape,” said Marc de Grandpré, Red Bull New York president and general manager. “We’re proud of what’s been built, but even more, we know what it requires of us now. This center raises the standard. Now we must live up to it every day we walk through these doors or step on these pitches.”
Equally notable — the campus, which cost an estimated $112 million to build, has transformed a site that once included Honeywell International’s headquarters. That sprawling complex became vacant in 2015 when the company moved to neighboring Morris Plains, leaving the township with a stranded asset in a struggling suburban office market.
Transforming the property meant overcoming multiple obstacles.
Kristin Byrd of Gensler, who served as design director for the project, said the Red Bulls initially looked at the old Bayer HealthCare site nearby, which was smaller and could have fit just six full-size pitches and two youth-size pitches. About six months into the process, the Honeywell campus became available as part of a potential 80-acre assemblage that “really set the team up for success for everything that they wanted to do.”
SLIDESHOW: RWJBarnabas Health Red Bulls Performance Center
Honeywell, which ultimately moved its headquarters to North Carolina, was planning to sell the site to a residential developer. Racioppi and township officials “just called them up relentlessly” to change their mind, he said, which it did in 2021 after many discussions with the mayor and “with the comfort and security given by the Red Bulls that they would timely perform and close the transaction.”
The technology giant amicably broke that contract and sold the property to the club in 2021, but without contingencies after forgoing the earlier offer.
Still, the planning board needed to change the zoning, and the Red Bulls needed to convince area residents they’d be good neighbors. In response to concerns about invasive lighting, for instance, they brought in a stadium lighting expert to demonstrate how targeted newer lights are. That came amid months of meetings, starting with the outreach to neighbors in an event held at the nearby Westin, followed by continuous meetings between club representatives and the community, by phone or in person — and even at residents’ homes when requested.
Byrd, for her part, said the team studied daytime and nighttime use “to minimize how much of the facility the neighbors were actually seeing in terms of that roof line peeking above the trees.” The property is contoured to block the soccer pitches from view, Racioppi said, and the high netting around the pitches blends in with its surroundings.
“The way it’s built, you see right through it,” Racioppi said, also noting that the Red Bulls loved the location because the drive up offers “a grand entrance.”
As for traffic, Byrd said that, when Honeywell was at the site, “it was an office building where you had hundreds of cars coming in each day.” Around 110 people will staff the new facility, which was built by March Construction on an accelerated timeline to accommodate teams for the 2026 World Cup.
“When we were approached, it was all about creating a new training facility and headquarters for their team, and they really wanted a place where they could bring everyone together under one roof,” Byrd said. But that would have meant a three-floor building. Instead, the club kept its headquarters in Harrison so the Morris Township complex could be two floors. Accommodating the eight pitches was most important, Byrd said.
Construction on the site began in 2024, setting up a new era for the Red Bulls after the club had outgrown its previous training center. A team spokesman also highlighted its choice to buy instead of leasing the Columbia Road site, showing its commitment to the area and the talent around it.
The completed building has multiple gyms for both the professional and academy teams, a dining hall that includes dedicated nutrition spaces and a professional chef, academic spaces for youth education and a comprehensive medical suite and innovation lab focused on preventative health, rehabilitation and recovery, according to a news release. Additional resources include the integration of aquatic therapy spaces, innovative fatigue detection processes and systems to support advanced treatment and clinical care.
Byrd also noted there’s space for a women’s facility and girls’ academy if the Red Bulls decide to expand into the pro women’s arena.
“The RWJBarnabas Health Red Bulls Performance Center represents a major step forward in how we care for professional athletes and the next generation,” said Dr. Gerardo Chiricolo, the club’s chief medical officer and vice chair of emergency medicine for RWJBarnabas Health. “This facility isn’t just about treating injuries; it’s about preventive care, optimizing recovery and supporting each athlete’s long-term well-being. Equipped with a broad range of innovative resources including a wellness lab, state-of-the-art training equipment, advanced rehabilitation tools, real-time training load monitoring and performance insights, we can deliver customized care at a level that simply wasn’t possible before. This ensures that every decision we make is precise, proactive and centered on the individual athlete.”
The April 22 ribbon-cutting ceremony featured Tammy Murphy, New York/New Jersey Host Committee board chair and former first lady of New Jersey; Morris Township Mayor Donna Guariglia; Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber; team head of sport Julian de Guzman; Jürgen Klopp, head of global soccer at Red Bull; RWJBarnabas Health CEO and President Mark E. Manigan; and team alumni. Tina Cervasio, sports anchor at Fox 5 New York, served as emcee.
Murphy noted she and former Gov. Phil Murphy worked to bring the FIFA World Cup to New Jersey. Eight games will be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, including the final, and Brazil’s team will be using the Morris Township complex to prepare. The World Cup finalists will also train there before the final on July 19.
“I really laud Red Bull and RWJBarnabas for seeing how important it is to invest in the community and help those who have a dream and aspire to play soccer at the highest levels, to help to achieve that right here,” Murphy said.
