12A — January 31 - February 13, 2020 — Economic Development — M id A tlantic Real Estate Journal
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E conomic D evelopment By Jackie Madden, The Garibaldi Group/CORFAC International Unlikely landlords make space in New Jersey for the Life Science Boom
T
he millennium began with a large migration of life science compa-
opment (R&D) space has two problems. First, the available class A lab supply can barely
driving real estate decisions throughout the region and beyond. Life science firms are
expects. To solve this market challenge, answers are coming from non-traditional sources. Take Amarin Pharmaceuti- cal, the company that holds the patent for the FDA-approved drug Vascepa, which improves cardiovascular health. After a string of favorable test results, the company’s prospects have soared and they now have a mandate to double their U.S. employee base. To accommo- date the expanded workforce, they moved from roughly 21,000 s/f in an amenity-free space in the quiet town of Bedminster to 67,747 s/f at
440 Rte. 22 in the heavily trafficked area of Bridgewater. Known as Grande Com- mons, the amenity-rich cam- pus that Amarin now calls home is minutes from the walkable downtown and the Bridgewater Commons Mall. What makes the deal unique is that the campus is a tra- ditional office park, but the landlord has agreed to build a state-of-the-art R&D lab to accommodate Amarin’s needs. Cellularity’s relocation to Florham Park this past April tells a similar tale. The clin- ical-stage cell therapeutics company leased 145,000 s/f of space at The Green at Flo- rham Park, moving from an older space in Warren. Again, a landlord in a traditional office park was willing to build a brand new R&D lab to help Cellularity immerse themselves in the flourish- ing Florham Park innova- tion community. The new lab also enables streamlining the firm’s manufacturing and distribution by incorporating the newest technologies and workflow studies. In addition, emerging inno- vation centers and life science- focused shared office and lab spaces are helping to support the demand. Those too are coming from non-traditional operators such as Bristol- Myers Squibb (formerly Cel- gene) at their Summit campus and Princeton University who operates the Princeton Innova- tion Center BioLabs. The New Jersey Bioscience Center at New Brunswick is home to many young firms. In the heart of New Jersey's "Research Corridor,” the Bio- science Center is a 46,000 s/f biotech incubator in a 50-acre research park that is run by the New Jersey Economic De- velopment Authority. As we begin a new decade, opportunistic landlords will continue to reap the rewards of filling the lab gap. The demand for a vibrant and diverse work experience validates blurring the lines between office and lab space, so expect more office landlords to open their doors to R&D. Amore uncertain future may be ahead for landlords of traditional lab space that aren’t adapting to this new reality. Jackie Madden is direc- tor of brokerage services at The Garibaldi Group/ CORFAC International.
nies out of New Jersey, but more re- cent years have found a new crop of young sci- ence-related f i r m s e s - tablishing a
The demand for a vibrant and diverse work experience validates blurring the lines between office and lab space, so expect more office landlords to open their doors to R&D.
meet demand. The second is where the available space is located. In a strong economy buoyed by record-low unemployment numbers, recruitment and employee satisfaction are
regularly having to double or triple their employee base seemingly overnight, and New Jersey’s current lab offerings and their locations do not of- fer the desired live-work-play atmosphere today’s labor force
Jackie Madden
name for themselves in the state. The challenge now is: where? New Jersey’s current stock of lab and research & devel-
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