95 Greene St. in Jersey City — Courtesy: Thor Equities Group
By Joshua Burd
A company that develops meat from cultured animal cells has become the second tenant to lease space at a newly repurposed, lab-ready building in Jersey City.
Thor Equities Group, the landlord at 95 Greene St., announced Friday that Fork & Goode has leased 11,855 square feet at the 350,000-square-foot property. The operator will take space on the third floor, coming on the heels of a recent commitment by RWJ Barnabas Health and Jersey City Medical Center as the building’s first tenant since it was repositioned from office space.
JLL Vice Chairman Dan Loughlin, Senior Managing Director Dan Spero, managing directors Bob Ryan and Craig Eisenhardt, Executive Vice President Blake Goodman and Senior Vice President John Cahill represented Thor Equities in the transaction. William Hartman and James McClelland Gale of Cushman & Wakefield represented Fork & Goode.
“We are very pleased to welcome Fork & Goode to 95 Greene Street,” said Jack J. Sitt, executive vice president of Thor Equities Group. “The space offers state-of-the-art infrastructure to deliver an environment the inventive company will thrive in.”
In announcing the deal, Thor Equities described Fork & Goode as pioneering a new approach to growing meat to meet the world’s growing need for protein without compromising public health, nutrition or the environment. The company cultivates meat by growing real meat cells that have the flavor and key nutrients that consumers crave and need, enabling a new sustainable supply chain to help build a more resilient food ecosystem.
Fork & Goode is the first and only company to have developed a simple, patented process enabling cultivated meat production to scale efficiently, according to a news release.
Thor Equities acquired 95 Greene from SJP Properties, which had operated the building as high-end office space. The complex originally served as a manufacturing plant for Colgate-Palmolive, leaving it with robust utilities infrastructure and abundant power resources served by multiple utility grids, along with 13- to 15-foot ceiling heights, secured interior loading docks, an on-site life-safety generator and flexible floor plates.
Thor worked with SGA Architects to complete a sweeping adaptive reuse project for 95 Greene St., with base building work such as upgraded mechanicals, HVAC, vertical conduits and a new rooftop generator.
