Avaya Subleases 352,000 SF AT&T Building

And Avaya has found that space just a few miles down the road. The company has just signed a deal to sublease the 350,000-sf former AT&T R&D center in this adjoining Monmouth County community. AT&T had put the complex, located on Middletown-Lincroft Rd., on the market early this year, moving remaining employees at the site to another location in Middletown and to an additional facility in Parsippany, NJ.

Terms of the sublease transaction were not disclosed, although it is known that AT&T had 10 years remaining on its lease with the building's owner, a partnership between local developer William Schaffel and Torcon Inc., a construction firm based in Westfield, NJ. According to the Avaya spokesperson, the company will begin the move-in next month, a process that's expected to take about two months to complete.

Lucent, meanwhile, apparently has a ready use for the 400,000 sf that Avaya is leaving behind at the Holmdel location. According to a published report, a portion of the 1,500 people who currently work at Lucent's Warren Corporate Center site in Warren, NJ will be relocated to Avaya's soon-to-be former space in Holmdel. Still others will be moved to Lucent locations in Whippany and Murray Hill, NJ.

The 187-acre, 825,000-sf Warren Corporate Center had been sold by Lucent last fall to a venture of SJP Properties of Parsippany and PRISA, a commingled fund managed by Prudential real Estate Investors, also of Parsippany. Lucent continued to occupy the complex, but it was considered a temporary arrangement.

"We devised a plan to give Lucent the flexibility it needed to accommodate its corporate restructuring, while meeting the objectives of all parties involved," Steven J. Pozycki, chairman/CEO of SJP Properties, said when the earlier deal closed, alluding to the suggestion that Lucent was looking to make a move. SJP has not disclosed plans for possible redevelopment and re-tenanting of the complex.

One other major neighboring piece of telecom-related space remains to be accounted for. Lucent is continuing to shop, on a sublease basis, the 275,000-sf complex located on Red Hill Rd. in Middletown that the company vacated at the end of 2001.