216,000 SF of Tech Space Returns to Market

"With its location, its natural surroundings and space for the most secure data centers in the country with the underground shelter, it provides quality space at a very reasonable cost," says Christopher Locatell, VP of the Philadelphia-based BPG.

The property's available space is currently listed on NAI Fennelly's website with an asking price of $25.50 per sf plus tenant electric. BPG bought the approximately 300,000-sf, multi-building property at 330-350 Carter Rd. in mid-2004 on behalf of its BPG Investment Partnership VI, renamed it Princeton Technology Center and launched its redevelopment.

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, a specialty company involved in gene-related therapy, occupies a 76,000-sf building as an R&D center, and the current availability of about 216,000 sf consists mostly of a completely vacant, four-story, nearly 200,000-sf building at 330 Carter Rd. The rest of the vacancy consists of an original 1800s mansion that's fully restored and cleared for office or restaurant use.

Among its features is a helipad, its own wastewater treatment plant and, tracing to the buildings' Cold War era beginnings, a data storage facility designed to withstand a nuclear attack. To that, the redevelopment has added a number of technological improvements. Among other things, "we have incorporated a new curtain wall system as well as improved mechanicals, including dual-fed electric and fiber-optics," says asset manager Robert Beach.

Target tenants include everything from corporate headquarters, to biotech and research labs, educational facilities and disaster recovery and data centers. Availabilities range from units of 5,000 sf up to the full 216,000 sf. The buildings sit on a 192-acre site, and besides the existing space, the tract is cleared for an additional 470,000 sf of new space.

Originally developed by Western Electric in the late 1960s as that company's first international research facility, the property later housed AT&T's Educational Research Center, and more recently was occupied by Lucent, which moved out in 2002. Current corporate neighbors include ETS, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Johnson and Johnson.