$400M Expansion Proposed for Pfizer Campus

Pfizer inherited the existing 1.3-million-sf campus here when it acquired rival Warner-Lambert back in 2000, and the announcement that the company will expand the site is seen as the next step in the pharmaceutical giant's sorting out of its real estate assets in New Jersey in the wake of two major acquisitions in four years.

The other acquisition, of course, was Pharmacia, a deal that came down shortly after the latter spent $260 million to buy the two-million-sf former AT&T headquarters campus in Basking Ridge, NJ in 2002. That property remains completely vacant and on the market, and Pfizer has indicated it will not use it for anything.

In the case of the pending expansion here, Pfizer officials say they will build a major R&D facility, along with a 900-car parking garage and additional related facilities. Pending Monday night's planning board meeting, company officials have declined to release information on how much building space is involved with the expansion, although industry sources say the project will likely double the size of the existing facilities.

According to information provided by Pfizer, work on the project could begin by the end of this year, pending necessary approvals, and the company is targeting 2006 for completion of phase one, which would include the new R&D building. The existing campus is utilized primarily for R&D purposes.

Build-out for the multiple-phase expansion could take at least five years, and perhaps more, according to a Pfizer spokesperson. Along the way, it's estimated that the project will create upwards of 800 construction and related jobs.

Besides the Morris Hills campus, the New York City-based Pfizer's facilities in the Garden State include offices just to the north of here in Parsippany, as well as a major campus in Peapack. The latter is the former Pharmacia headquarters location.