Signing the lease at Bell Works are, front row, from left: James Fakult, president of JCP&L; Ralph Zucker, president of Somerset Development. Back row, from left: Brendan McBride, Jamie Ragucci, and Tim Greiner, all from NGKF; Kyle Mahoney, Tara Keating, and Jeff Garibaldi, all from Garibaldi Group

HOLMDEL, NJ—Somerset Development's president Ralph Zucker has plugged yet another major tenant into his Bell Works redevelopment—this time an electric and gas utility firm.

Utility company Jersey Central Power & Light has signed a 10-year lease for 64,000 square feet at the former Bell Laboratories complex, at 101 Crawfords Corner Road, in Holmdel, NJ.

JCP&L will relocate its regional headquarters to the sprawling Bell Works site from 331 Newman Springs Road in Red Bank, when its lease there expires next year. Nearly 200 JCP&L engineering, corporate billing, human resources, senior management, outage restoration, and support staff employees will be relocated about six miles north from the current Red Bank facility to Bell Works by early summer next year.

“This move keeps our jobs, tax dollars, and ancillary support services in Monmouth County,” says Jim Fakult, JCP&L president. “After reviewing multiple locations, the Bell Works site best met our needs with its proximity to our current headquarters and accessibility to the Garden State Parkway. The new location offers the modern office space needed to help our employees perform their jobs at a high level on behalf of our customers.”

A key component of the relocation effort will be moving JCP&L's central region dispatch office from the Red Bank facility to Holmdel. System operators and support staff monitor the electric system and dispatch line personnel or substation workers, as needed, to restore service interruptions for customers in Burlington, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties.

“New Jersey's infrastructure and economy are powered in large part by JCP&L, and we're thrilled that they've found a new home at Bell Works,” says Zucker. “We hope this flexible, state-of-the-art workspace will provide an environment where JCP&L employees look forward to coming to work each day.”

Bell Works is a two-million-square-foot adaptive reuse initiative. As previously reported by GlobeSt.com, the site was once home of some of the most monumental technological innovations of the 20th century. Today, it's being revived, as what Somerset calls “a dynamic 'metroburb,'” complete with a blossoming ecosystem of technology, traditional office, retail, dining and hospitality.

JCP&L, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., serves 1.1 million New Jersey customers in the counties of Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren.

Instant Insights /

Power Company's Relocation Energizes Bell Works Redevelopment

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