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FEATURE ARTICLE, APRIL 2006
OFFICE & INDUSTRIAL SPOTLIGHT
Highlighting new office and industrial projects adorning the Northeast landscape.
Dan Marcec
EISAI INC. U.S. HEADQUARTERS, WOODCLIFF LAKE, NEW JERSEY
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Advance Realty Group is developing the U.S. headquarters for Eisai Inc., a 209,000-square-foot building in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.
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At 100 Tice Boulevard in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, Advance Realty Group is underway on the development of a three-story, 209,000-square-foot, Class A office building that will serve as the new U.S. headquarters for Eisai Inc., an internationally based pharmaceutical company. Turner Construction is general contractor, and Gensler is the architect. Completion of the project is expected in January 2007.
Eisai is a research-based human healthcare company that discovers, develops and markets products in more than 30 countries worldwide, focusing on three therapeutic areas: neurology, gastrointestinal disorders and oncology/critical care. Since Eisai’s inception in the United States, the company has been located in Bergen County, thus it will be able to keep its employee base and its links to the community, which is very important to its business.
“This building will be a world-class business environment with top amenities located within the structure,” says Greg Senkevitch, chief operating officer of Advance Realty Group. “In addition, it is located next to a lifestyle center, and a premier hotel and conference center, of which Eisai will be able to take advantage.”
One of the most unique aspects of this development is that according to CB Richard Ellis, which brokered the build-to-suit deal for Advance, this building is the largest corporate build-to-suit project to take place in Bergen County in the last decade.
“Basically, this project takes one of the last development sites out of the market, bringing in a new 200,000-plus-square-foot tenant and thus providing a great local impact,” Senkevitch explains. “The development also will create approximately 500 to 600 jobs for the area, which will help the retail that already is doing well. Further, Eisai is a great corporate citizen and will be an asset to the community.”
THE WOODLANDS CORPORATE CENTER II, WHEATFIELD, NEW YORK
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The first building completed at The Woodlands Corporate Center II was this 42,000-square-foot industrial facility.
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The Woodlands Corporate Center II (WCCII) is a mixed-use development situated on 120 acres in the western New York town of Wheatfield. Under construction by Calamar, the entire project breaks down into approximately 1.5 million square feet of office, flex, industrial and retail space, and it includes roughly 350 senior housing units and 35 patio homes. Currently, a 42,000-square-foot industrial building and about a dozen patio homes have been completed, while 1.5 miles of road were dedicated in November 2005, and another 35,000-square-foot flex building is underway. A 42,000-square-foot, Class A office building is in design, with construction planned to begin this summer. Total build out is expected in approximately 5 to 7 years, and at that time, WCCII will include a total of 250,000 square feet of Class A office space and 100,000 square feet of retail; the balance of the square footage will consist of flex and industrial space.
“This development is located really in the center of the population area of western New York, which provides a great work force for companies seeking to locate here,” says Kenneth Franasiak, president of Calamar. “We worked hard to preserve the old growth forests on the property, even though we weren’t required to do so, in order to have transition points between the different uses of the park. There is a trail system and many parks throughout the development, which really gives people who live and work here a great quality of life.”
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An aerial shot of the Woodlands Corporate Center II, a 120-acre mixed-use development under construction by Calamar in Wheatfield, New York.
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Other amenities on site include a full-service daycare center, a fitness center, and a banquet and conference facility. The latter building currently is underway, and when complete, it will accommodate approximately 600 people. A 9-acre lake with a peninsula jetting out into it borders both the office park and the residential community, and bordered by a walking path, the lake creates a picturesque scene.
Liberty Mutual Insurance is the only tenant within the development at this time. Calamar is offering both speculative and build-to-suit space to prospective tenants, and it even is offering land for sale to developers looking to come in and develop their own facilities.
Locally, WCCII will have a tremendous impact on the market. Franasiak projects that the project will create 2,500 new jobs and have an economic impact of approximately $100 million in taxes annually. In addition, being within a 1.5-hour drive to Toronto, Ontario; Buffalo, New York; and Rochester, New York, the project has excellent access to the 9.6 million residents that live throughout that area.
“We really took advantage of the topography and natural site amenities in order to create a world-class development on a greenfield site; with industrial, office, retail and housing, this project really comes together full circle,” Franasiak says. “This isn’t like a lot of old mixed-use developments where you’re on an old shotgun-type road with a different building every step, but there’s a real unification of the uses here. Transitioning from one use to the next, there’s unified design that creates unique villages, providing a great sense of community throughout the development.”
324 HALF ACRE ROAD, CRANBURY, NEW JERSEY
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Rockefeller Group is developing a 680,000-square-foot warehouse distribution facility at 324 Half Acre Road in Cranbury, New Jersey.
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At 324 Half Acre Road in Cranbury, New Jersey, Rockefeller Group is developing a 680,000-square-foot industrial facility. The property is situated within the Rockefeller Group Foreign Trade Zone at 8A, which is a 3.5 million-square-foot park that Rockefeller has been developing over time through different land acquisitions. The specific property is a redevelopment of an old facility formerly owned by Church & Dwight. Breaking ground in August of 2005, Rockefeller demolished approximately 500,000 square feet on the site to make way for the new building, which is scheduled to be complete late this summer. Mitchell & Hugeback is providing architectural services, Clayco Construction is general contractor, and Langan Engineering is the site/civil engineer.
“Like this project, a majority of the buildings built in the New Jersey warehouse distribution market are speculative,” says Clark Machemer, director of real estate development at Rockefeller Group. “Typically, companies are looking for space no more than 6 months out, and the development timeframe of construction alone pushes 12 months, so it’s tough to have a true build-to-suit in this market.”
Currently, Rockefeller is marketing the site to a single tenant, offering a large block of space that is not very common in the 8A submarket. Many other companies have been forced to split their properties into multiple-tenant structures due to market conditions, but Machemer is optimistic that the market will pick up by the time this project is complete.
The 8A submarket is the largest industrial sector in New Jersey, and with frontage and visibility on the New Jersey Turnpike, this site is a strategic location for a prospective tenant. With that proximity to the turnpike, the user also has convenient access to the New York metropolitan area, which boasts 25 million consumers.
The building offers clear heights of 36 feet and upwards of 50 trailer spaces, as well as an office component with the balance being warehouse distribution space. In addition, the site offers foreign trade zone benefits, which a tenant can realize in order to obtain additional cost savings, and Rockefeller will work with those tenants in order to identify incentives that are available.
“There has been a little lag in leasing, and tenanting a building this size would help bring the market out of its current lull; if fully leased, it probably will be one of the largest lease transactions in the state this year,” explains Machemer. “A company that locates here will serve the entire Northeast, and a lease of this magnitude would impact the local and regional markets.”
NORTH PENN BUSINESS PARK, LANSDALE, PENNSYLVANIA
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Stoltz Real Estate Partners is developing an 877,599-square-foot business complex suited for multiple office and industrial uses.
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Stoltz Real Estate Partners currently is developing the North Penn Business Park, which includes a comprehensive redevelopment of a former tile manufacturing factory into a multi-use, first class business complex. Located at 1000 North Cannon Drive in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, the property features a total of 877,599 square feet of space situated on 111 acres. The project consists of office, industrial, light manufacturing and distribution uses, and Merck, Lansdale Warehouse, Accupac, Daltile Corporation and Net Carrier already are signed on as tenants. Construction on the redevelopment began last September, and completion is scheduled for June. Base building capital expenditures will be approximately $20 million for the entire project. Stoltz also is handling development, leasing and management of the facilities; SPG3 is providing architectural services; and Hibbeln Engineering Company is project engineer.
“Given its functionality and location, we were initially drawn to the site with a redevelopment in mind,” says Douglas Veasey, senior vice president of office and industrial at Stoltz. “The project’s central location in Montgomery County, with access to the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and other major transportation arteries, was particularly attractive.”
The functional layout of the original tile facility created a wide range of options in planning and developing space for specific tenants. For example, the property is an efficient assemblage of structures of different sizes with ceiling heights ranging up to 22 feet, providing space solutions for a variety of possible users. A building with more than 350,000 square feet is available, yet space for tenants seeking 40,000 square feet to 50,000 square feet also is for lease. The site also allows for 300,000 square feet of excess development capacity for additional office and/or industrial users.
Part of the facility is build-to-suit in that Stoltz is redeveloping an entire section of the property for Lansdale Warehouse, the business park’s largest tenant. The balance of the available space is speculative, and Stoltz currently is preparing base building conditions to attract new tenants. The most unique aspect of this project is that it can allow for office, industrial, light manufacturing and distribution tenants to work within the same complex, giving prospective tenants a wide variety of options. Lansdale Electric is offering inexpensive power to the site, and other amenities include an on-site Internet service provider and a planned on-site Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) station. Further, CSX is in progress on reactivating its rail spur into the property, providing rail service to all tenants. In addition, development of a new 175-unit residential townhouse community is anticipated on an immediately adjacent parcel.
“The facility provides an extremely positive impact on the market in that it is one of only a handful of projects capable of accommodating a 350,000-square-foot tenant with immediate occupancy needs,” says Veasey. “Otherwise, it has tremendous functional space that provides great options in the regional market.”
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