Plans for a high-profile Hackensack Meridian Health facility in Woodbridge are only 18 months in the making. Yet it was the product of relationships that had formed years earlier at the upper levels of New Jersey’s real estate and health care sectors, helping to make good on years of planning by state and local officials to activate the Metropark train station.
Bearing fruit
I’m as guilty as anyone of overusing words like “transformative” when it comes to major redevelopment projects. But it seems in some instances like there’s no avoiding it. A case in point is a plan for Woodbridge’s Metropark train station, where surface parking lots will become a new office and ambulatory care center spanning nearly 250,000 square feet, as well as 235 luxury apartments and retail space. If you ask me, that seems transformative enough.
Our cover story this month is a deep dive on that project, which Hackensack Meridian Health unveiled in early March alongside Gov. Phil Murphy and a team that includes Russo Development, Onyx Equities and Dinallo Development.
Real estate icons among honorees at Meadowlands Chamber gala, 50th anniversary celebration
If there was any doubt about the commercial real estate industry’s impact on northern New Jersey, this year’s Meadowlands Chamber Legacy Awards Reception was a clear reminder. The organization hosted the annual gala on Oct. 12 while marking the 50th anniversary of its founding. Fittingly, it also unveiled a list of the 50 most influential people in the region’s history — including more than a dozen iconic developers and real estate service providers, from Jerry Gottesman and Jon and Peter Hanson to Gretchen Wilcox and Dave Gockel.
