The New Jersey Business & Industry Association and its flagship publication, New Jersey Business magazine, honored the visionaries behind 13 outstanding New Jersey development projects at the 60th Annual New Good Neighbor Awards today.
A virtual, live video event was held presented on YouTube today, saluting the companies and entities, as well as the architects, builders and financing entities, whose recent noteworthy projects have benefited their communities and improved New Jersey’s overall economic landscape.
The full video of the virtual event, highlighting each winner, can be found here.
“These winning projects have created $404 million in capital investment, nearly 2,800 construction jobs and more than 3,800 permanent jobs, providing valuable assets and generated tremendous economic activity,” NJBIA President & CEO Michele Siekerka, Esq. said. “These projects also improve our quality of life—revitalizing neighborhoods, bringing communities together, and providing valuable services.
“We are proud to honor these projects and we thank all of them for making New Jersey a better place to live, work and play,” Siekerka said.
The list below provides a brief description of each winning project.
Hi-res photos of the winning projects are available upon request at communications@njbia.org.
ACY1 Amazon Fulfillment Center, West Deptford
Set on 60 acres, Amazon’s first fulfillment facility in South Jersey totals some 1.7 million square feet on three floors. An estimated 12 miles of conveyor belts move products and packages from stocked shelves through packing to shipping.
Inventory is stacked on high shelves on the second floor, where 300-pound robots – capable of carrying 1,300 pounds each – efficiently locate items and deliver them to employees for packing. Associates often work alongside the robots, allowing employees to learn new skills and helping to create a more efficient process to meet customer demands.
The architect was Macgregor Associates Architects of Marietta, Georgia; the builder was RC Andersen, LLC, of Fairfield.
Allied Beverage Group, Elizabeth
Allied Beverage Group, one of New Jersey’s largest wine and spirits distributors, teamed with Prologis, a global leader in logistics real estate, to build a new, state-of-the-art headquarters on a long-vacant brownfield lot.
The building includes 100,000 square feet of corporate offices and 500,000 square feet of warehouse and industrial space, integrating office suites, custom alchemy and wine rooms for workshops and product training, and revolutionary automation and logistics technology. Solar panels on the roof fuel most of the building’s operations. The nearly $57 million project involved a team of about 500 and created 950 full-time jobs in Elizabeth.
The architect was KSS Architects in Philadelphia; the builder was Prologis in East Rutherford.
Atlantic Rehabilitation Institute, Madison
Atlantic Health System concluded that the former acute care “All Souls” hospital posed significant challenges to further modernization and innovative care, and embarked on a facility that would set new standards in rehabilitation medicine.
In a joint venture partnership with Louisville-based Kindred Healthcare, AHS completed and opened the new Atlantic Rehabilitation Institute last year. It’s a $24 million, two-story, 38-bed, all private room rehabilitation hospital, and the first stand-alone hospital to be built from the ground-up by AHS. It employs 70 full- and 60 part-time employees with the state-of-the-art facilities.
The architect is Earl Swensson Associates of Nashville, Tennessee; the builder is Holt Construction, of Newark.
Audible Innovation Cathedral, Newark
Audible opened the Innovation Cathedral, a state-of-the-art technology center in May 2019. With 400 tech employees working in the space, it is helping Audible realize its vision of supporting students, interns and entrepreneurs, and bolstering Newark’s image as a nationally renowned technology hub.
Historically, the cathedral was home to the Second Presbyterian Church, founded in 1811. In 2014, Audible and 120 construction workers began the $62.2 million rehabilitation of the 80,000-square-foot church and adjoining buildings, thoughtfully and meticulously preserving many of the historic elements and providing a complementary environment for technological creativity.
The architect as Spectorgroup of New York City; the builder was Fidelco Group of Millburn.
Bergen Community College STEM Student Research Center, Paramus
The $1 million, state-of-the-art research center, which opened in May 2019, serves more than 2,000 students enrolled in various STEM programs.
The 3,500-square-foot center inside the campus’ Pitkin Center offers highly flexible space for creating both small and large teaching and work areas and collaborative technology labs. The space was created to become a modern, flexible industrial complex of open spaces where furniture can easily be rearranged to create groupings of various sizes, separated by movable dividers. The center has also quickly become a recruitment asset for the college.
The architect was RSC Architect in Hackensack; GPC Inc., from Millburn, was the builder.
CentraState Medical Center, Freehold
Last September, the CentraState Healthcare System completed the second phase of its solar energy initiative, enabling it to produce most of the power it needs to operate using more than 8,000 photovoltaic solar panels. It saves the medical center some $500,000 in annual energy costs through the use of sustainable, clean power.
In 2015, the medical center installed a ground-mounted solar panel “farm” on its campus. In the $10.5 million second phase involving some 26,000 labor hours, a system of solar carports was installed. Combined, the two solar installations generate approximately half of the medical center’s total electric needs and eliminate the need for backup power.
The engineer was Gladstone Design; the builder was KDC Solar LLC in Bedminster.
Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, Nutley & Clifton
This former Roche Pharmaceuticals site is now a state-of-the-art campus, and the first new private medical school in New Jersey in more than 50 years.
The 500,000-square-foot project involved the adaptive reuse of a multistory research laboratory building on the site to include offices, classrooms, a library and an auditorium. The centerpiece is a multimodal virtual healthcare training center featuring spaces to teach clinical and nursing skills and provide physiology, occupational therapy, activities of daily living, and health assessment bed laboratories.
The $70 million project included $50 million in construction costs, and involved more than 600 tradespeople. The architect was FZ Collaborative with CO Architects, based in New York City and Los Angeles; the builder was Torcon, of Red Bank.
PSE&G Highland Park Solar Storage
The PSE&G Highland Park Solar Storage System is located on 2 acres of remediated former municipal landfill, a productive solar farm that provides clean, renewable energy to the electric grid.
Situated across from a multifamily housing complex, adjacent to a park and walking trails, and landscaped with new trees and perennial plants and shrubs, the solar project combines a 1,764-panel, 605-KW-DC solar farm with 2,000-KW/hour Tesla batteries.
The panels and batteries connect directly to the PSE&G electric grid. The solar panels provide electricity and charge the batteries, which reduce voltage fluctuations inherent to grid-connected solar systems. The facility provides enough electricity to power about 100 homes per year.
The builder was PSE&G, in partnership with Advanced Solar Products in Flemington.
RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center, Piscataway
The RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center at Rutgers University is the new headquarters of a comprehensive world-class sports medicine program, and also serves as a first-class practice venue for the university’s gymnastics, wrestling and basketball teams.
The $86.7 million project was done in partnership with RWJBarnabas Health, which manages the sports medicine program that provides Rutgers’ 625 NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletes in 24 sports with an extensive array of healthcare services.
The 295,000-square-foot, four-story complex opened in 2019 and now employs 125 staff. The facility features nearly 12,000 square feet of gymnastics training space; a 9,000-square-foot wrestling area; two practice courts for men’s and women’s basketball; film study rooms; an on-site medical suite with clinic and exam rooms; and numerous other amenities.
The architect was Perkins Eastman, of New York City and the builder was Epic Management Inc. of Piscataway.
Serratelli Hat Company, Newark
The Serratelli Hat Company, a family-owned business that has been making cowboy hats for much of its 142-year history, completed a two-year, $1.55 million expansion and renovation of its Newark headquarters and manufacturing site in 2019.
The turn-of-the-century building’s red brick was repaired, washed, repainted and restored to maintain the original historic style. Construction included new windows, doors, awnings, stairs and a loading dock. The interior pace was redesigned to pay tribute to the business’s Old West influences while also meeting modern workforce needs with the addition of new conference and break rooms, private offices and communal work spaces.
The architect was Office Space Planners, Inc. of East Brunswick, and the builder was JPD Inc., of Newark.
Skyline Hall at William Paterson University, Wayne
This new 90,000-sqauare-foot residence hall at William Paterson University, named for its sweeping view of the New York City skyline, fits naturally into its architectural and environmental surroundings. The five-story primarily brick building is parallel to the street and the rear tucks into the rising hillside surrounded by a mature growth forest.
Skyline Hall’s design supports the university’s commitment to a green, sustainable campus. Energy-efficient windows and LED lighting are installed throughout, and recycling-sorting chutes on each floor keep recyclables separated on the way to compactors. All paint and carpeting adhesive used in the building is low- or zero VOC and hard-surface floors require no waxing or stripping with harsh chemicals.
The $40 million project was designed by Clarke Caton Hintz Architects, of Trenton, and built by Dobco Group, Inc., of Wayne.
Stockton University Academic Building, Atlantic City
Stockton University’s new $32 million academic building, located in the heart of Atlantic City, is part of the university’s growth plan and is helping to diversify Atlantic City’s economy, as well as reinvigorate that seaside community.
The three-story, 56,000-square-foot structure was designed and built to promote sustainable building practices and energy efficiency that meet LEED Silver standards. The building, which is located on a redeveloped brownfield site, includes preferred parking for fuel-efficient vehicles and charging stations for electric cars – all in support of the university’s energy efficiency goals.
The first floor of the building features a public dining area and meeting space that can be used by local organizations. The project was designed by SOSH Architects and built by DEVCO New Brunswick.
Washington Street Redesign Project, Hoboken
This $19.5 million revitalization project included utility upgrades and pedestrian and traffic safety improvements to better meet the needs of this thriving business, cultural and historic area that has served as the City of Hoboken’s backbone for 150 years.
For improved water and storm management, 9,000 linear feet of water main was replaced, as were hundreds of domestic and fire service lines and 31 fire hydrants. A separate power generation and distribution network that can operate during a weather-related outage was incorporated into infrastructure upgrades. The street’s traffic signals, among the oldest in the nation, were replaced and the numerous pedestrian and roadway upgrades were made to improve safety, mobility and access.
The project engineer was T&M Associates, of Middletown, and the builder was Underground Utilities Corp., of Linden.
