A rendering of the planned upgrades at 340 Mount Kemble Ave. in Morris Township — Courtesy: Onyx Equities
By Joshua Burd
Large-scale upgrades are coming to an office building just outside downtown Morristown, in what will be Onyx Equities’ latest project to reposition an aging commercial property.
Onyx Equities LLC said Friday that it is planning “a major transformation” for 340 Mount Kemble Ave., a nearly 400,000-square-foot building in Morris Township, which it acquired last summer with PCCP LLC. In unveiling its plans, the firm announced that it has hired Newmark Grubb Knight Frank to oversee leasing at the property.
Onyx’s plans call for building a new glass façade that will flood its three floors with natural light, a full-height atrium lobby, collaborative environments and modern finishes, according to a news release. New amenities will include conference rooms, a cafeteria, auditorium, fitness center and parking for 1,600 vehicles.
The firm also plans to plans to run shuttle services from the building to the downtown Morristown train station, which is five minutes away.
“Onyx Equities has been on the forefront of renovating aging office properties to meet market demand,” Timothy Greiner of NGKF, who is handling the assignment with colleagues Blake Goodman and Colleen Maguire. “In partnership with PCCP, it plans to take 340 Mount Kemble to its bones, which already had been designed with larger ceiling heights and wide column spacing, and create an almost brand-new, state-of-the-art building that’s not abundant elsewhere in the market.”
NGKF has worked with Onyx, a Woodbridge-based owner and investor, in other successful repositioning projects in recent years. Last year, the brokerage secured Daiichi Sankyo as the tenant for all of 211 Mount Airy Road in Basking Ridge, a redeveloped 305,000-square-foot building in Basking Ridge.
The firms have also worked together to lease of The Meadows in East Rutherford at 201 and 301 Route 17 North.
At the Morris Township building, a former AT&T regional headquarters, the firms see an opportunity in a northern New Jersey office market that is coming off one of its best years in a decade. They noted that the “vast majority of office stock near and in downtown Morristown is older and lacks adequate parking, which also is the biggest obstacle for corporate users seeking headquarters space in the state.”
“We’re excited by the new vision for 340 Mount Kemble and believe large corporate users will appreciate what will essentially be a new building in a major transit area with direct access to Manhattan and major roadways,” said D.J. Venn, Onyx’s senior vice president of asset management. “We acquired a headquarters asset at land cost, which enables us to offer prospective tenants the highest quality product and a Morristown address at very competitive rental rates.”
