15 NEST in Kenilworth — Courtesy: Onyx Equities
By Joshua Burd
Revlon is heading to Onyx Equities’ Northeast Science and Technology Center in Kenilworth, where it will lease 62,000 square feet for its New Jersey-based research and development hub.
According to a news release, the cosmetics giant will move its research labs, pilot manufacturing and office functions to the 108-acre campus on Galloping Hill Road. The facility will occupy part of a 1.2 million-square-foot building now known as 15 NEST, which up until recently served as Merck & Co.’s global research headquarters.
Onyx, Machine Investment Group and Pivot Real Estate Partners acquired the 2 million-square-foot complex from Merck early last year, with plans to reposition it as a multitenant property. That plan has largely hinged on the turnkey office, lab and biomanufacturing space left by the pharmaceutical company, and Tuesday’s announcement noted that Revlon will be the first tenant to occupy 15 NEST since Merck’s departure earlier this year.
“Revlon selected NEST for its existing lab infrastructure, which will help us further amplify our innovation capabilities, and provide a state-of-the-art setting to meet our specific R&D needs,” said Lise Jorgensen, Revlon’s chief scientific officer. “This substantial investment in our R&D capabilities marks a critical and exciting step in Revlon’s future and reinforces our commitment to develop the most advanced consumer-inspired products for our brands around the world.”
Revlon’s decision comes less than a month after Onyx announced that CoreWeave, a cloud computing startup backed by Nvidia, would lease 280,000 square feet at the campus for a new $1 billion data center. JLL represented ownership in the latest deal, while Newmark Executive Managing Director Daniel Levine and Managing Director Dan Reider represented Revlon.
Rock Brook is the MEP/FP engineer for the new facility.
“Revlon’s decision to join NEST is an exciting step towards our vision of a dynamic, collaborative, innovation ecosystem,” said Matthew Flath, Onyx Equities’ senior vice president for asset management, who oversees the NEST campus. “With their decades-long legacy in beauty and personal care, Revlon complements the forward-thinking research environment at NEST and is helping to establish a community where leading science and technology companies unite to innovate, thrive and elevate industry standards.”
A.I. cloud startup CoreWeave to build $1 billion data center at Onyx’s NEST campus in Kenilworth
