200 Metro Blvd. at the ON3 campus in Nutley and Clifton — Courtesy: Prism Capital Partners
By Joshua Burd
A global pharmaceutical company is moving its U.S. headquarters to Prism Capital Partners’ ON3 campus, having signed a full-building lease for the site’s landmark 15-story office tower.
Eisai Inc., which focuses on oncology and neurology, is set to take more than 300,000 square feet at 200 Metro Blvd. in Nutley. The company said it plans to transfer up to 1,200 corporate and research and development employees from Woodcliff Lake in late 2021, making it the largest pure office tenant to date to commit to the former Hoffmann-LaRoche campus on Route 3.
“Eisai is a human health care company,” Eisai Inc. President Tatsuyuki Yasuno said Tuesday. “This ON3 Eisai workplace will bring the Eisai community together in one place and drive a culture of new scientific horizons and entrepreneurial innovation.
“We draw inspiration from our patients and passion from our people. We break barriers every day. Our workplace will, too.”
The Cushman & Wakefield team of Robert Rudin, Bill Brown and Josh Cohen represented Prism, while Savills’ Gregg Najarian, Daniel Foley, Chip Conklin and Nathan Brzozowski represented the tenant.
Eisai Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Tokyo-based Eisai Co. Ltd., joins a host of other high-profile tenants at the 116-acre, mixed-use redevelopment site. Prism acquired the campus in late 2016, some four years after Roche said it would vacate its North Jersey home of more than 80 years, and has spent the past four years luring major users as it pursues a sweeping long-term plan for the property.
“We’re thrilled, and the best news of all is we have no space left on the campus,” said Edwin Cohen, a principal partner with Prism, noting that the firm inherited roughly 1.2 million square feet of high-end office and laboratory space on the site. That space is now home to users such as the Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery and Innovation, the Hackensack-Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University and Seton Hall’s Graduate College of Nursing and School of Health and Medical Sciences, along with Modern Meadow and Ralph Lauren Corp.
The site will also be home to a newly built, 250,000-square-foot laboratory facility for Quest Diagnostics, which is about 80 percent complete.
“We have a lot of other activity on the campus as well, which is a good sign,” Cohen added. “So our vision is coming to reality.”
The developer ultimately aims to build a walkable, downtown-style environment that also includes retail, multifamily and hospitality components, along with additional office and health care users. At 200 Metro Blvd., Eisai will occupy a distinctive tower that is a familiar sight to area residents and drivers and is nine miles from Manhattan.
Prism has since removed the original east-facing marble façade and replaced it with a new curtain-wall glass exterior to match the northern and southern facades, creating enhanced views of the Manhattan skyline. The firm is also nearing completion on a one-acre park that will serve both the Eisai building and 100 Metro Blvd., the 250,000-square-foot home of Ralph Lauren.
“We are excited to welcome Eisai Inc. as the first biopharmaceutical company to this thriving center for health care,” said Eugene Diaz, a principal partner with Prism.
Eisai said 200 Metro, which has a gold rating on the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design scale, will ultimately bring all of its New Jersey-based employees under one roof and provide additional space for expansion. The company’s footprint in the state includes its U.S. headquarters, commercial and clinical development organizations, while its discovery labs are in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
Its current U.S. headquarters is at 100 Tice Blvd. in Woodcliff Lake.
