Towers Perrin Signs Lease for 375,000 SF

CHERRY HILL, NJ-Towers Perrin, the Stamford, CT-based management consulting firm, has signed a lease for 375,000 sf at Woodcrest Corporate Center here, and will move 1,100 jobs to the location from nearby Voorhees, NJ. According to a TP spokesperson, the lease term runs for 10 years and carries two five-year options. No further details were released.

The location is the 33-acre former headquarters of the defunct Langston Corp., which made equipment for the corrugated cardboard industry. The company filed for bankruptcy in the mid-’90s and was liquidated in 2001, with O’Neill Properties Group of King of Prussia, PA and Strategic Realty Investments of Wayne, PA buying the company’s local real estate late last year.

The joint venturers immediately announced plans to convert the site into Woodcrest Corporate Center, a class A complex. “The redevelopment potential of this property is enormous,” J. Brian O’Neill, CEO of O’Neill Properties indicated as the partnership took title to it.

“The highly adaptable nature of the existing structures and the property’s proximity to nearby amenities gives it unique advantages over other sites in the area,” according to Peter H. Monaghan, a principal of Strategic Realty Investments.

With the signing of a prime tenant, the conversion of the site has gotten the jump-start the partners were looking for. Actually, officials in South Jersey are breathing a sigh of relief that Towers Perrin’s 1,100 jobs will stay in the region, because locations in Pennsylvania and Virginia had been actively vying for the operation.

And more jobs could be on the way: Towers Perrin currently has almost 1,700 employees at two locations in downtown Philadelphia, and the leases at both locations will be expiring within the next couple of years. Towers Perrin officials won’t comment, but the former Langston site has an additional 130,000 sf of building space available for expansion which, if taken by the firm, would boost the location to more than 500,000 sf and provide a setting for some of the Philadelphia jobs.

Officials of O’Neill Properties and Strategic Realty Investments say they will spend $50 million to convert the property into class A space for Towers Perrin. Although no timeline has been announced, work is expected to begin shortly.

The company is also getting a major incentives package, including $1,000 per job from Camden County, a Business Employment Incentive Program rebate reported to be 80% of state income taxes paid by new employees, plus a variety of transportation-related goodies.