United Healthcare Signs 212,000-sf Lease at Former AT&T Building

The 212,000-sf building located at 131 Morristown Rd. in Basking Ridge, NJ, Somerset County, is owned by Unilever U.S., and it used to be occupied by AT&T, which vacated the premises this past spring. But the sizable chunk of class A space wasn’t on the market for very long: United Healthcare has signed a lease for the entire building, where it plans to house the U.S. headquarters of its Ingenix Pharmaceuticals division.

The pharmaceutical industry has arguably been the most active segment in New Jersey real estate this year, including some of the largest deals of the year, so it’s no surprise that the space, one of the largest blocks recently available, was quickly snapped up by a company in that field.

Peter Blanchard, a principal in The Garibaldi Group of Chatham, NJ, and Charles E. Snyder, vice president of the Trammell Crow Co., represented United Healthcare in the transaction with owner Unilever U.S.

The deal will bring yet another pharmaceutical name—in the form of a service company—to the New Jersey landscape. So far this year, pharma and related companies involved in transaction activity in the Garden State have included Novartis, Schering-Plough, Johnson & Johnson, Atlantic Health Systems, American Home Products and LifeCell to name a few.

Ingenix, which will bring a total of more than 1,000 jobs to the site, is said to be one of the fastest growing information technology companies involved in the healthcare industry. The company serves multiple market segments on a business-to-business basis, including health insurers and other payers, care providers, large employers and governments. Said to be the largest health information and research provider in the country, the company’s officials project that their revenues will top the $400 million mark this year.