The New Jersey Business & Industry Association and its flagship publication, New Jersey Business magazine, have announced the visionaries behind 13 outstanding New Jersey development projects honored by the 61th Annual New Good Neighbor Awards.
A story about all the winners can be found in the July issue of New Jersey Business magazine here.
“These winning projects have created $425 million in capital investment, with more than 5,100 permanent jobs and over 3,000 construction jobs,” said NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka. “Collectively, in addition to providing valuable assets and generating strong economic activity, they also improve our quality of life in New Jersey.
“We congratulate the amazing people behind these projects – all of which make New Jersey a better place to live and work,” Siekerka said.
The list below provides a brief description of each winning project.
Allen Flavors, Inc., South Plainfield
Architect: ENV, Englewood Cliffs
Builder: Phelps Construction Group LLC, Boonton
Allen Flavors, Inc., a custom beverage formulator that supplies high-quality ingredients to the food and beverage industry, began operations in a three-room office in Kenilworth.
Today, following the $24.3 million renovation and expansion of a former industrial building, Allen Flavors occupies more than 100,000 square feet designed to meet the growing company’s manufacturing and sales needs.
Allen Flavors’ multiyear and multiphase transition has been finalized with a corporate headquarters that includes a large and welcoming reception lobby, upscale executive offices, a cafeteria, warehouse and state-of-the-art liquid blending laboratories equipped for production and R&D. The new space also features upscale conference rooms, a corporate training center, and tasting rooms.
BioCentriq, Newark
Architect: NK Architects, Morristown
Builder: Gilbane Building Company, Newark
BioCentriq was an endeavor by the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) to support innovation in New Jersey’s biopharma industry amid the meteoric rise of potential cell and gene therapies that are outpacing manufacturing processes and production capabilities in the state.
It took 12 months and $7.5 million to renovate and rebuild the 3,200-square-foot Newark Campus Life Sciences Building – now the BioCentriq Cell and Development Center – into an ISO-7 certified GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) clinical manufacturing center.
Soon after the center opened last October, the BioCentriq team began working with cell and gene therapy developers to guide them through the long laboratory bench-to-clinical trial process. Employees were hired to work in both the clinical production facility on NJIT’s Newark campus and in the pilot plant in South Brunswick.
Bridge Point 78 Phase I, Lopatcong & Phillipsburg
Architect: Cornerstone Architects Ltd., Itasca, Ill.
Builder: Bridge Industrial, Parsippany
With Bridge Industrial’s demolition of the former Ingersoll Rand manufacturing plant, located off I-78 in both Phillipsburg and Lopatcong, and the construction of the 2.2-million-square-foot, $220 million Bridge Point 78 Phase I, Warren County has become a new hub for distribution and logistics.
Besides the project’s economic benefits, Bridge Point worked with NJDEP and Ingersoll Rand to environmentally improve the formerly contaminated site.
Consulting with NJDOT, Bridge invested some $55 million in infrastructure improvements to optimize the surrounding road network to accommodate anticipated increased traffic to the new distribution hub and future commercial development.
During peak construction, Phase I created 900 construction jobs. With the completion of Phase II, the six-building, 3.85-million-square-foot campus is projected to generate as many as 3,000 permanent warehouse jobs.
Cedar Bridge Tavern Country Historic Site, Barnegat
Architect: Historic Building Architects LLC, Trenton
Builder: Dell-Tech Inc., Trenton
Built in 1740 as a hotel and restaurant, Cedar Bridge Tavern was once a regular stop for George Washington and is close to where the last skirmish of the American Revolution took place in 1782.
The tavern’s historic significance prompted Ocean County to purchase the property in 2008. As the tavern had fallen into disrepair, the county committed to restore it before this historic treasure was beyond saving.
The extensive, $2.2 million restoration included the refurbishing and adaptive use of the historic building’s 4,300 square feet and adding an outdoor classroom facility and caretaker’s cottage. The building’s original section includes a bar room, dining room and bedrooms. Wherever possible, original moldings, windows, doors and fireplaces were saved, and period wall coverings and architectural details restored.
Genmab, Plainsboro
Architect: Gensler, Morristown
Builder: Turner Construction Company, Somerset
In 2019, Genmab, an international biotechnology company committed to improving the lives of patients with cancer, made the strategic decision to expand its R&D, commercial and administrative capabilities. It signed a 10-year lease at the Princeton Forrestal Innovation Park.
Genmab initially planned to renovate and occupy two floors in one of three five-story buildings on the campus. However, to accommodate its growth, the company expanded the project to include a third floor, for a total of 135,000 square feet.
The $20 million renovation included creating cutting-edge office, lab and conference/training spaces, and ample open meeting areas. With commercial, research, development and administrative operations all under one roof, collaboration across functions is enhanced. Genmab’s new space has met the requirements for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification for its sustainable design features.
The company added 102 jobs in 2020, an 82% increase over 2019.
Hilton Garden Inn Camden Waterfront, Camden
Architect: Nelson Worldwide, Minneapolis, MN
Builder: Intech Construction, Philadelphia
The Hilton Garden Inn Camden Waterfront, the first new hotel to be built in Camden in more than 50 years, is set to cater to the area’s growing business and tourism activities.
The seven-story, 122,000-square-foot hotel offers 180 guestrooms, a 90-seat restaurant and lounge, multipurpose meeting rooms, and a 3,300-square-foot event room, plus other hotel amenities. The project is the newest component of Camden’s 2016 Waterfront Master Plan, maximizing views of the Delaware River and Philadelphia skyline.
The project was designed to meet LEED Silver requirements for energy efficiency and sustainability. During construction, the property upgraded to cutting-edge health and safety features and a specialized air filtration system was installed in every room to sanitize and enhance air quality.
Joint Health Sciences Center, Camden
Architect: HOK, New York
Builder: Torcon Inc., Red Bank
Rowan University, Rutgers-Camden University, and Camden County College combined resources to create the Joint Health Sciences Center (JHSC), a 100,000-square-foot medical research, education and training center in downtown Camden.
Their $73 million shared, long-term investment in education and the community supports ongoing development already underway in the city, anticipating that Camden will become New Jersey’s center of advanced medical research and innovation.
The four-story building – a project that generated 250 construction jobs – features communal spaces where creative scientific minds from the three institutions can collaborate. The design is based on the Mesh Economy Model, which co-locates faculty and students from various academic disciplines in order to share laboratories, equipment and classrooms.
Design features that support this approach include medical simulation labs, a virtual reality lab, open floor plan labs, shared amenities within different labs, and shared pantries, lounges, meeting spaces, and multipurpose rooms. Sustainable design features include energy recovery systems in all the building’s air handlers, an automated lighting control system complete with dimmers and occupancy sensors, and LED lighting.
Mazza Recycling Services, Tinton Falls
Architect: Tekton Architecture Studio LLC, Port Monmouth
A nationally recognized leader in the recycling industry, Mazza Recycling Services has inaugurated a $15 million single stream, state-of-the-art recycling facility at its 55-acre Tinton Falls site – the first complete positive sorting design system on the East Coast.
Mazza’s sorting facility uses sizing and optical technology to recycle more materials from the waste stream, which translates into producing more quality, useful products from the recyclables. By investing in this design, Mazza not only is helping to preserve natural resources, but also is extending the life cycle of plastics, paper, cardboard and metal containers during today’s environmentally critical times.
Through the creation of this 70,000-square-foot transfer station and MRF plant, Mazza also contributed to local employment. Some 120 construction workers were involved in the project and 60 employees now are working at the facility.
Mercer County Community College, Trenton
Architect: Clarke Caton Hintz, Trenton
Builder: J.H. Williams, Moorestown
Mercer County Community College’s (MCCC) new Health and Wellness Education Center, a significant $4 million investment to provide healthcare for the underserved and create jobs in the state’s capital, demonstrates the college’s commitment to that mission and to the city’s future.
The 22,500-square-foot, three-story center gave new life to a vacant building in downtown Trenton. Today, 101 North Broad Street includes facilities where instruction is provided for certification in multiple healthcare-related fields.
On the center’s third floor, a life-size home or care facility-like setting provides real-world training for students by replicating the environment students would find entering the homecare or nurse’s aide professions. MCCC has converted the basement into a fully equipped space for its exercise science program.
Plymouth Rock Assurance Company, Woodbridge
Architect: Kimmerle Newman Architects, Harding
Builder: Belle Associates LLC, Parsippany
Initially planning to be a tenant in the ideally situated Class A Mack-Cali building for its new headquarters in New Jersey, Plymouth Rock decided to instead purchase the building and consolidate employees there from offices in Red Bank and Berkeley Heights.
Plymouth Rock’s $7 million renovation of the 125,000-square-foot building included a new cafeteria with a built-in conference center and lounge area. Using folding partitions, the cafeteria can be separated for smaller meetings, or by adding the adjacent main lobby it becomes a giant town hall space.
The entire building is wireless, resulting in efficiency and flexibility in changing work locations among offices and the dozens of huddle, focus and conference rooms. The building’s infrastructure was fully upgraded, and a generator was installed to support the entire facility, including computers, if necessary.
Today, some 700 employees work in the building; plans are to add another 100.
Monmouth Junction ShopRite of South Brunswick
Architect: Robert W. Adler & Associates, PA, West Long Branch
Builder: E.P. Guidi, Inc. Ambler, Pa.
The latest addition to the Saker ShopRite family is a state-of-the-art, 72,000-square-foot ShopRite supermarket at Heritage Plaza in Monmouth Junction.
Since opening, it has been labeled a “supermarket destination” for the amenities and benefits customers from South Brunswick and surrounding areas experience on what otherwise might be a routine milk-and-eggs run.
As a result of the $12 million project development, shoppers find a selection of more than a thousand freshly prepared fine foods; a 2,500-square-foot nutrition center with more than 3,000 items, including natural, organic, gluten-free, and allergy friendly foods.
The new store is outfitted with the latest energy-saving and sustainable technologies in refrigeration, lighting and recycling – including glass doors on the dairy and freezer cases, LED and T-8 lighting, and a state-of-the-art Biodigester that reduces waste by biologically “digesting” organic material.
Trenton Thunder Ball Park Billboard Replacement
Builder: Golden Crown Contractors, Inc., Trenton
When fans come to Trenton Thunder Ball Park, they’ll have something added to cheer about: A brand new billboard in the outfield.
Golden Crown Contractors, Inc., a local, state-certified Women Business Enterprise/Small Business Enterprise (WBE/SBE) company, was retained to restore and replace the stadium’s 9,500-square-foot, 20-year-old, original billboard.
The $140,847 contract, administered by the Mercer County Parks Commission, called for the removal of billboard advertisements, removal of the wooden billboard, and full billboard replacement.
Golden Crown Contractors built new wooden panels with marine plywood, primed all the panels, installed the new panels and applied finishing coats. Two all-terrain articulating lifts were needed to complete the project, as the billboard is 30 feet high. As a major focal point inside the stadium, the new billboard provides a significant enhancement to the park.
Women’s Health Center Grove Street, Jersey City
Architect: NK Architects, Morristown
Builder: OA Peterson Construction Co., Inc., Montclair
Jersey City Medical Center’s (JCMC) new Women’s Health Center Grove Street is an integral part of RWJBarnabas Health and JCMC’s commitment to expand comprehensive and convenient health services and healthcare access throughout the community.
Designed by women for women, the center is believed to be the first such facility in Hudson County. Strategically located near the Grove Street PATH station, buses and garage parking, the $2.2 million state-of-the-art, multi-disciplinary facility is designed to provide well-located access to quality primary and specialty care in an up-to-date, single setting.
A variety of services are available in obstetrics, gynecology, reproductive and wellness specialties, including fetal medicine, mammography and antenatal testing for both current residents and the 62,500 new residents expected to relocate to Jersey City.
Projections are that many of the patients who will visit the center live or work within a mile radius of JCMC at Grove Street.
