Plans for H-2, the second phase of the Health + Life Science Exchange in downtown New Brunswick, will include 360,000 square feet of build-to-suit lab and office space for Nokia Bell Labs. — Rendering courtesy: SJP Properties
By Joshua Burd
SJP Properties has started construction on the 10-story, 370,000-square-foot research and office tower in downtown New Brunswick that will house Nokia Bell Labs and mark the second phase of the master-planned Health + Life Science Exchange district.
Slated for completion in late 2027, the facility known as H-2 will be the new home for the iconic technology company after more than 80 years in the Murray Hill section of Union County. Plans call for highly efficient floor plates with a side core design and varying slab-to-slab heights on some floors to accommodate experimentation, the developer said, providing a new launchpad for innovation in next-generation networks, advanced artificial intelligence and software systems, industrial automation and quantum and optical research.
SJP is building the project in tandem with New Brunswick Development Corp., the master developer of the Health + Life Science Exchange or HELIX site, in a location directly across from the New Brunswick train station. The firms noted that the transit hub, which is served by both NJ Transit and Amtrak, will be modernized and expanded starting later this year with the help of $50 million from the state’s Transportation Trust Fund.
“It is a duty as a real estate developer to ensure that the communities where we build not only stay strong but have the opportunity to grow stronger by developing future-proof workplaces that empower enterprises such as Nokia Bell Labs to remain at the leading edge of innovation,” said Steven J. Pozycki, founder and CEO of SJP Properties. “Creating, with our partners, commercial destinations of global significance that bring thousands of professionals together in the most accessible and desirable of municipalities enables local economies to thrive and reinforces New Jersey’s worldwide reputation for scientific discovery. We are confident with Nokia Bell Labs at its center, HELIX NJ will emerge as the dominant East Coast research and development district.”
The HELIX’s first phase, which will be completed by late 2025, will house the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, an incubator known as known as the New Jersey Innovation Hub and a facility for elite researchers from Rutgers. The 574,000-square-foot building will kick off the planned four-acre, 1.5 million-square-foot campus at Albany and Spring streets, where plans also call for a third building with additional office and research space and hundreds of apartments.
Nokia Bell Labs, for its part, will occupy an adjacent building under a long-term lease executed in 2023. The project earlier this year secured a 10-year, $103.9 million tax credit award under the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s Aspire program, allowing the highly touted plan to move forward.
“The addition of Nokia Bell Labs to the HELIX ecosystem is another step in creating a place that will foster innovation, discovery and commercialization,” Devco President Chris Paladino said. “By putting brilliant people together in one place, we will change lives with the work that will be done here.”
SJP’s team for the Nokia Bell Labs project also includes its financial partner, Morgan Stanley, and PNC Bank as the construction lender. JLL’s Dan Loughlin, Blake Goodman, Dan Spero, Jason Benson and Peter Ladas represented the landlord, with Sam Horowitz, Chris Hovanec and Ray Iodice of Colliers representing the tenant and Newmark’s Adam Spies and Chris Kramer representing the equity partner.
SJP, meantime, pointed to its long history of projects for blue-chip global corporations, where it’s often helping them move from sprawling suburban campuses to high-end buildings in walkable, transit-oriented destinations. The developer recently welcomed Unilever to 111 River St. in Hoboken, where the consumer goods giant occupies 111,000 square feet built out by SJP Project Solutions.
In Morristown, SJP’s joined Sanofi in May to mark the opening of a newly developed, 260,000-square-foot office at the developer’s M Station project. The two-building complex is also home to Deloitte LLP, which opened its doors in summer 2022
“The start of construction on the new Nokia Bell Labs Headquarters at HELIX NJ marks a defining moment in New Brunswick’s ongoing evolution as a premier hub for research, innovation and economic vitality,” New Brunswick Mayor Jim Cahill said. “This development reflects our City’s strong partnerships with industry leaders like Nokia, SJP Properties and Devco, and underscores our commitment to fostering opportunities that create jobs, attract world-class talent and enhance the quality of life for all who live, work, and study here.”
