GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Verizon Agrees to Buy Former AT&T Campus

Verizon is buying the campus from current owner Pfizer, which had inherited the asset when it acquired rival Pharmacia three years ago. Pharmacia itself had picked up the property from downsizing AT&T, intending to use it as its own headquarters, but never occupied the campus. Pfizer did not respond to a request for comment.

Terms of the sale have not been disclosed, but reports last week put the sale price at $125 million. The campus consists of seven interconnecting buildings totaling 2.6 million sf, but only about half of that is usable office space. The remainder consists of a massive underground parking complex, oversized lobby areas and a network of 30 miles worth of hallways.

Pharmacia had paid $210 million for the property three years ago. The campus traded for the lesser price this time around, sources say, because it needs substantial renovations to make wait for its new occupant. Verizon officials say they expect the site, which will be renamed Verizon Center, to be fully occupied by Q4 of 2006.

Earlier reports had as many as 4,000 positions relocating to the campus, but Verizon officials now say the total will be closer to 2,800. About 1,800 of those are already in the Garden State in the form of Verizon Wireless headquarters personnel, with the rest comprised of leadership teams from the company's domestic telecom and international units, plus selected corporate staff and support personnel currently based in New York City and several other states.

With the deal, the Garden State won the battle with rival Virginia for the project. "The corporation conducted a thorough, rigorous review of all the options, and concluded that this was the best choice," says Dennis M. Bone, president of Verizon New Jersey, which has its headquarters in Newark. "This facility gives us an opportunity to locate several critical business units under one roof, and allows us to gather key employees in a single location, while at the same time relocating the fewest number of employees and their families."

Verizon will also benefit from a hefty incentives package. Last month, the New Jersey EDA okayed a $63.8-million Business Employment Incentive Program grant based on the number of jobs the telecom giant will create and retain in the Garden State. The package also includes a waiver of sales and use taxes related to buying, renovating and outfitting the campus.