Massive Waterfront Corporate Park Breaks Ground in Hoboken

SJP Properties has broken ground on the Waterfront Corporate Center III, the final piece of a 26-acre mixed-used office park in Hoboken, New Jersey. The world’s leading educational publisher, Pearson Group, is slated to be the center’s anchor tenant. In partnership with USAA Real Estate, SJP is developing the 500,000-square-foot site as the third and final office building at the 1.5 million-square-foot corporate and retail-shopping complex. Hoboken city officials say the event marks a major step in Sandy recovery.

Waterfront Corporate Center III, located at 221 River Street, is expected to create more than 600 construction jobs.

The development will be next to the W Hotel and a short walk from the Hoboken Terminal, a mass transit hub for NJ Transit buses and trains, PATH, water ferries to Manhattan. It is also a short drive to the Holland and Lincoln tunnels.

The 14-story building was designed by HLW International and be the only Silver LEED complex on the Hoboken waterfront.

The $150 million Phase III is being financed with the help of $66 million in tax credits from the state of New Jersey, over a 10-year period. The tax credits are designed to help attract businesses to relocate or to open new offices near major transportation hubs — making them more sustainable and more attractive to younger employees from New York and other major population centers.

Officials said the groundbreaking marked a major step in the city’s recovery following Hurricane Sandy, which caused extensive flooding in the Hudson County city and left the PATH commuter train system there badly damaged. “This is a strong testament to the fact that we are able to attract new business to Hoboken,” said Mayor Dawn Zimmer.

Pearson is relocating 900 employees from its existing offices in Upper Saddle River and Old Tappan, New Jersey, and will occupy five floors of the complex starting in 2014, when the building is scheduled for completion. "We’re all about talent, that’s what makes our business go,” said Will Ethridge, chief executive of North American Education for the Pearson Group.

The new waterfront complex marks the latest in a series of developments for SJP Properties.

The firm is developing the new Panasonic North American headquarters in downtown Newark, and is a partner in the $500 million luxury rental complex in Fort Lee, called the Modern. [ElectricWeb | Blogger, April 28, 2012]

The two glass skyscrapers under construction adjacent to the George Washington Bridge will hold a combined 900 luxury rental units.

SJP is also the developer of the struggling 11 Times Square in Manhattan. That 1.1 million-square-foot property is only 40 percent leased after three years