500 Warren Corporate Center Drive in Warren — Courtesy: Rubenstein Partners LP/Vision Real Estate Partners
By Joshua Burd
PTC Therapeutics has leased 360,000 square feet for a new corporate headquarters in Warren, in a deal that marks one of New Jersey’s largest office leases of the past decade.
The drug maker, which is currently headquartered in South Plainfield, will occupy two full buildings at 400 and 500 Warren Corporate Center Drive. It’s leasing the space from a joint venture of Rubenstein Partners LP and Vision Real Estate Partners, which announced the blockbuster deal Thursday and have repositioned much of the five-building campus off Interstate 78.
Jeff Zell and Louis Kluger of JM Zell Partners represented PTC in the transaction, while Robert Donnelly Sr., Robert Donnelly Jr., Paul Giannone, Todd Elfand and Kevin Carton of Cushman & Wakefield represented ownership alongside Robert Klausner of Fox Rothschild LLP. The biopharma company will relocate after a build-out that will include offices, collaboration and conferencing spaces and research laboratories, with construction set to begin this month.
“Since acquiring and repositioning Warren Corporate Center, our goal has been to create the kind of fully amenitized and differentiated office product high-end companies in the region are seeking,” said Stephen Card, a principal at Rubenstein. “PTC Therapeutics is a true global leader and innovator in the biopharmaceutical sector and adding an organization of their magnitude to the roster of tenants at the Warren campus validates the strategic investments we’ve made at the site.”
Originally built as a headquarters for Lucent Technologies, Warren Corporate Center spans more than 820,000 square feet across five office buildings, which are surrounded by walking trails, a landscaped pond and four covered parking structures, the landlords said. Vision and Rubenstein acquired the 176-acre campus in 2016 and have since repositioned the complex around a newly built, 20,000-square-foot amenity building at the center of the campus.
Known as Warren Hill, the building includes an outdoor amphitheater, indoor and outdoor patio dining, multifunction conference areas, a full-service cafe with a coffee bar and a high-end fitness center, among others features.
“Warren Corporate Center is a suburban office site designed for the modern employee,” said Sam Morreale, founding and managing partner of Vision Real Estate Partners. “The institutional-quality property is a rare blend of full-service amenities, outdoor spaces and experiential features, such as our unique lifestyle center, that separate the property from others in the region. Warren Corporate Center is a singular offering in the highly competitive New Jersey office market, and we are pleased to welcome PTC as the long-term, addition to the campus.”
PTC has made several notable real estate moves in New Jersey in recent years, including a 185,000-square-foot lease at the Princeton West Innovation Campus in Hopewell and a 101,500-square-foot deal at The New Jersey Center of Excellence in Bridgewater. It’s currently based at 100 Corporate Court in South Plainfield.
The newest lease comes just weeks after Gilead Sciences finalized a 96,000-square-foot commitment to create an East Coast at the Latitude campus in Parsippany, which is also owned by Vision and Rubenstein.
“Our new headquarters allows us to have a Class A facility for our growing team, while keeping the new flexible work paradigm in mind,” said Doug McLeester, vice president of global facilities at PTC Therapeutics. “As PTC grows into one of the world’s leading rare disease companies, our in-house capabilities must similarly grow and adapt. The new facility at Warren Corporate Center, which complements our existing operations at the PTC’s Gene Therapy Center of Excellence in Hopewell, is the ideal space for our expected future expansion in New Jersey, a foundational and growing market for biotech in the U.S.”
Biopharma firm takes 185,000 sq. ft. at sprawling Bristol-Myers site in Hopewell
