The 15-story, 324,000-square-foot tower known as Building 76 is state-of-the-art after being renovated in 2007, but Prism Capital Partners still plans major upgrades to help integrate the property into its master plan. — Photo by Jennifer Brown for Real Estate NJ
By Joshua Burd
For all the appeal of the five modern, institutional-grade office and R&D buildings that were left standing on the former Roche campus, there is still work to be done.
In fact, Prism Capital Partners is planning a multimillion-dollar renovation at three of the buildings.
Eugene Diaz, principal with the firm, said one major priority is to reposition the lobbies and entrances to have them face what will be the new focal points of the campus, such as a new main street and new entrances.
The firm is working with Gensler on the project, which is meant to make the buildings “even more attractive and habitable in terms of how they’re going to interact with the campus as we develop it in the future.” Quite simply, the campus “didn’t function for its history the way we intend it to function” when it is fully redeveloped.
“Everything needs to be integrated,” Diaz said. “Doorways and plazas that open up to locations today are not the areas that we want them to open up to in the future, because we’re going to be changing things and adding things to the campus.”
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Prior to the sale, Roche demolished about 1 million square feet of aging, obsolete buildings at the complex. The remaining space totals some 1.2 million square feet, much of which could be filled sooner rather than later.
“Needless to say we are immensely excited about the opportunity to create an entire overall 21st century environment,” said Edwin Cohen, also a principal with Prism. “And the buildings that are left are all institutional quality.”
