Bell Works in Holmdel — Courtesy: Somerset Development
By Joshua Burd
A longtime commercial real estate attorney in New Jersey has joined Somerset Development, having been tapped to help steer the firm’s ambitious residential and mixed-use pipeline.
The firm said Monday that it had hired Robert Feinberg as its director of operations. In the new role, he will help oversee day-to-day operations and completion of high-profile projects such as the Bell Works in Holmdel, with a focus on streamlining efficiency across those efforts.
The former Giordano, Halleran & Ciesla partner will serve as the liaison between all external partners, organizations, agencies and Somerset’s executive team and President Ralph Zucker.
“As Somerset continues to cultivate and advance current projects we’re also seeking new opportunities and look to the future with excitement and confidence, knowing the team we’re building shares our motivation to exceed even the loftiest expectations,” Zucker said. “We welcome Robert’s esteemed experience, energy and fresh perspective and look forward to the positive impact he will bring to all our endeavors.
During his tenure with Giordano, Halleran & Ciesla, which is based in Middletown, Feinberg earned industry-wide recognition and honors, including selection by the prestigious Chambers and Partners ranking. With degrees in both finance and law, Feinberg’s real estate specialty has led him to work with both privately held and public developers, tenants, real estate investment trusts, contractors, brokers and real estate management firms for the past 25 years.
“It’s an exciting time to join the Somerset Development team and I’m especially thrilled to have the opportunity to join a company that has truly pushed the limits of what was thought possible in the realm of commercial real estate development,” Feinberg said. “From the transformation at Bell Works to a host of similarly ambitious redevelopment initiatives, I’m excited to help lead Somerset’s efforts to rethink the ways in which we work, live and interact.”
Along with Bell Works, the redevelopment of the 2 million-square-foot former Bell Labs complex, Feinberg will play a role in Somerset’s other ongoing projects. They include Wesmont Station in Wood-Ridge, a redevelopment in which the firm remediated the site of a former Curtiss-Wright manufacturing plant to pave the way for a mix of housing, retail and community facilities, along with a new NJ Transit station.
Somerset is also moving ahead at a project known as GlassWorks in Aberdeen, where it aims to create a new Main Street-style community at a formerly abandoned industrial site. Located alongside mass transit, the 55-acre plot will include 540 new residential units, a 110-room hotel and 75,000 square feet of retail space, including a boutique movie theater.
Plans for the project also involve Glassworks Park, a 2-acre public park that will offer open space and display brick stacks from the original factory site, the news release said.
