Launch Is Set for 270,000-SF R&D Park

The four buildings, which will consist of 10 wet lab units from 6,000 sf and up, will range in size from 58,000 sf to 80,000 sf. Occupancies will range from 6,000 sf to the full 80,000-sf largest building. No development cost figures for the project have been released.

"SciPark will address the needs of the market niche for small laboratories in Central New Jersey," says Simon, noting that the 35-acre property is situated halfway along the corridor between Princeton University to the south, and the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers University to the north. The two campuses are separated by about 20 miles.

"This corridor also has millions of sf of research/office space that caters to large lab users," Simon continues. "With current vacancy rates for single-story, flex/R&D facilities in this marketplace well under 8%, there is a significant demand for the space being offered here." He adds that, unlike most of the big-box flex space in Central New Jersey, SciPark will meet the needs of smaller users.

The site itself is directly adjacent to Bristol-Myers Squibb's campus here. Other corporate names along the corridor, which is defined by the parallel northeast/southwest paths of the New Jersey Turnpike and US Route 1, include Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals, Sandoz, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Johnson & Johnson, Purdue Pharma and Lavipharm, plus such non-life sciences companies as McGraw Hill, Aetna and AT&T.

The development manager for SciPark is Paul McArthur, president of Trillium Realty Advisors of Hopewell. Steve Tolcash, a partner of GVA Buschman of Lawrenceville, is the exclusive leasing broker. And Keith Hone of Hone & Associates, Pennington, is the architect.

"SciPark will feature a flexible structural design to accommodate a wide variety of tenant needs," says Simon. Besides pharmaceuticals, biomedical, telecom and other R&D and office users are all being targeted to fill the space.