Further details being released on the deal indicate that Vonage is getting an incentives package from the State of New Jersey in the range of $10 million. The company currently occupies 100,000 sf in Edison, NJ, but with a workforce of 1,000 that's expected to grow to 2,000 by the end of this year, a new headquarters location was in order.
"The search included Pennsylvania the State of New York--Rockland County, the city and Long Island—as well as all of New Jersey," says Ben Shapiro, SVP of Grubb & Ellis, Fairfield, NJ, who with G&E colleague Jeff Kolodkin took Vonage through the site selection process and arranged the lease.
"New Jersey really stepped up to the plate," Kolodkin tells GlobeSt.com. "Between the New Jersey EDA and Department of Labor, they came up with more than $10 million." Specifically, the money is coming from a state Business Employment Incentive Program grant, as well as training grants from the Department of Labor. "The training grants are particularly crucial to a company that's adding 100-125 jobs a month," Kolodkin says.
"It was a very complex deal, including the challenge of getting economic development incentives--that was critical to the decision," Shapiro confirms. And as far as the simultaneous sale and lease transactions, "The seller wanted to sell the building, and was not interested in leasing it," Shapiro relates, "and Vonage was not interested in buying it."
Built for Prudential in 1977, the two-story, four-wing 23 Main St. sits on an 88-acre site that will house Vonage's corporate offices, network operations, a call center, R&D and other functions. None of the parties involved in the duel transactions would identify the seller, but the building was once fully occupied by Prudential and the asset was widely known in the marketplace as an owner-occupied building.
Vonage, meanwhile, is up to 650,000 customers in the US, UK and Canada, adding 15,000 customers a week and projecting a million customers by the end of the summer.
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