The collection is off to a great start in its first week, thank you so much to everyone who has participated so far! We have been able to fill our donation box & then some.
There is one more week to help out- unfortunately we have hit the cut off for holiday gifts, but food donations will be accepted up until the 22nd.
If you haven’t had a chance to participate yet here are the details:
Food Donation for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK)
Where: Lobby of 200 PrincetonSouth Corporate Center, Ewing, NJ 08628
When: From now until the morning of Monday, December 22nd
What: Nonperishable food items (no glass containers)- some wish list items are found here: TASK Food Drive Flyer.
Earlier this fall it became known that GlaxoSmithKline, British drugmaker, was planning a restructuring of their U.S. operations over the next three years. GSK plans to eliminate $1.57 billion in annual expenses. Details began to surface early this week (read more on njbiz.com) and fears that some of the jobs located in the Parsippany office would be lost began to grow. Once Wednesday rolled around, GSK had announced that there would be significant (upwards of 900 jobs) cuts from North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park and consolidations would happen in Philadelphia offices, with no firm news on New Jersey jobs(details at philly.com).
Camden’s mystery company revealed
Monday morning brought us news from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority: $100 million more incentives and 1,000 jobs were heading to Camden. (full story at Philadelphia Business Journal) At the time, there was no official disclosure of what company would be creating those jobs, although there were suspicions about who it could be. Suspicions were confirmed today when Subaru announced that they would be moving to the Campbell Gateway district. (follow-up article from the Philadelphia Business Journal with new information)
Expanding definition of sustainability
Generally, when one thinks of sustainable practices in office buildings green roofs, rainwater collection and solar panels come to mind. While these are all helpful, companies are finding different ways to be more green. Wyndham Worldwide has a headquarters campus in Parsippany that is prime example on the evolution of a company’s sustainability policy. (learn about it on njbiz.com here)
Reflecting on 2014, the Mercer Oak Realty team has a great deal to be thankful for. We know that many folks have not been as fortunate, and the holidays are always a good time to remember that.
This year there will be a Food & Holiday Gift Donation box set up in the Lobby of 200 PrincetonSouth Corporate Center- ready to collect some help for our neighbors in the Trenton area who are struggling this winter. If you are tenant of PSCC or happen to be in the area, we welcome you to join in the giving spirit and add a little (or a lot!) to the TASK (Trenton Area Soup Kitchen) Collection box. Or, if you know you’ll see one of us outside of the office do not hesitate to hand off your donation in person.
Holiday gifts can be donated up until December 12th & food items until December 22nd.
NRG Energy, a power generation and retail electricity business, broke ground on its new 130,000 sf Headquarters this week in West Windsor. NRG currently occupies about 90,000 sf in the Princeton market- in 2 buildings. $37.5 million in tax incentives are helping the company consolidate and move less than a mile across Route 1, where the new, environmentally sustainable facility will feature a living wall, 2 solar panel fields, rainwater collection, wind turbines, electric vehicle charging stations (along with a myriad of other green features) and house 540 employees; 386 of which are existing and about 150 will be new.
NRG CEO, David Crane made the following statement during his remarks at the ceremony: “None of us will have a full appreciation of this new building until it’s fully built and outfitted and occupied. At that point, I think we will really recognize that it’s not just another suburban office spot, but rather a living and breathing organism that hopefully every day will inspire its inhabitants to accomplish great and important things.”
The New Jersey Technology Business Tax Certificate Transfer (NOL) Program allows companies to sell NJ tax losses and/or research and development tax credits to unaffiliated, profitable corporate taxpayers in the State. Advantix, a biochemical company based in Princeton, announced its preliminary approval for a $1.9 million 2014 tax credit that it plans to transfer to $1.7 million in cash. Get the details on njbiz.com, here.
Princeton REIT CEO Steps Down
Chambers Street Properties Founder, CEO & President Jack Cuneo announced that he is retiring. Chambers Street Properties is a real estate investment trust in Downtown Princeton and was founded in 2004. The company is currently seeking a replacement. Njbiz.com has a full write-up on this announcement.
From nj.com story Construction boom coming to N.J. over next two years, business leaders predict:
Business and industry leaders are predicting a construction boom over the next two years in New Jersey.
Construction across the Garden State is forecast to rocket by 20 percent, according to agencies comparing their predictions at the New Jersey Alliance for Action’s 30th annual construction forecast seminar, held this morning at the Edison Hotel and Conference Center.
It has taken 3 years, but Princetel’s 41,500 square foot repurposing project is finished and just received its LEED Platinum rating, making it the first LEED Platinum industrial building in New Jersey.
LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) is a certification program established by the US Green Building Council that requires buildings to satisfy prerequisites and earn points to achieve different levels of “green” certification. The program supports efforts to promote building practices that have sustainability, health of future occupants, renewable and clean energy use and long-term money savings at the forefront. There are 4 levels of certification: Certified, Silver, Gold & Platinum.
As of August 1, 2014 there are 934 LEED Registered Commercial projects and 343 LEED Certified Commercial projects in the state of New Jersey; Princeton is home to 6 of those. Before this project, Hamilton had 2.
Princetel was founded in Pennington in 2000 and manufactures fiber optic rotary joints. The company moved to Hamilton in 2011 and has doubled its staff since then. CEO Barry Zhang says that the company’s mission is to remain sustainable, and explained that their Hamilton building has turned into a “passion project.”
4100 Quakerbridge Road, a 17 acre site south of the Quakerbridge Mall was sold to Costco for $9.4 million this week. Costco’s plans for the site are 156,000 sf worth of retail space including: a liquor store, pharmacy, optical services section, tire sales & installation and a 16 pump gas station- all of which should provide employment to 200 people.
The town became aware of Costco’s interest in the site when the then owner, United States Land Resources of Morristown requested a zoning change for the piece of property, over two years ago. Originally it was zoned for senior housing, but the argument was made that highway commercial would mix well in the area and the planning board approved the change.
This store will be the only Costco in Mercer County.
We are very happy to hear that our friends, Archer & Greiner P.C., have recently been ranked among the region’s best law firms- according to U.S. News & World Report–Best Lawyers report out earlier this week.
Archer & Greiner, a full-service law firm, is one of the five largest law firms in New Jersey and also has offices in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York. Aubrey and our Mercer Oak team have been lucky to call Archer & Greiner’s Princeton office a client over the years and we couldn’t be happier for them to receive some well deserved praise. Keep up the great work!
You may have noticed a new feature on our website- Marketour. Have you checked it out yet?
Marketour is a tool for any company interested in learning more about office space in the Princeton Market.
“Marketour started out as an in-house presentation tool years ago. Working with our tenant representation clients, we realized just how useful having an unbiased, birds eye view of the entire Princeton market is. We eat, breath and sleep this market, so we are constantly aware of what is and isn’t available. Our clients are too busy running their own businesses to pay attention to that.” explains CEO, Aubrey Haines. “With Marketour, companies can browse the market, get a sense of what’s out there and then give us a call to discuss their options. Marketour helps our clients leverage their valuable time and allows us to focus on the most important aspect of a commercial real estate transaction- the art of the deal.”
President, Sab Russo says, “Marketour is dynamic and we plan to continue to make changes and additions to create a better tool for companies searching for office space.”
Currently, the public version is available on the website. A version with significantly more information is available to Mercer Oak clients provided with a dedicated login.
Whether you’re looking to move in the next 6 months or just want to get a better idea of whats out there for future plans- Marketour is the easiest way to find your new office.
