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Tag: planning

The Sustainable Office: A peek into the modern changing office

Written by caitie on . Posted in Around Central New Jersey, Events.

We were very happy to attend the Princeton Chamber of Commerce’s “The New Way of Work” event put together by the Real Estate Business Alliance yesterday morning.

The panel discussion, along with breakfast & networking, was held at the Springdale Golf Club in downtown Princeton.

Featured speakers included Brian Marrs (Manager, Policy & Strategic Sustainability) & Bill Walsh (Director of Corporate Facilities) at NRG Energy and our friend Marlyn Zucosky (Partner & Director of Interior Design) at Joshua Zinder Architecture + Design.

Mr. Marrs & Mr. Walsh excitedly shared a sneak peak of what NRG’s new Princeton building, located on Route 1 in Carnegie Center, will include. The 130,000 sf building will serve as NRG’s new headquarters and is a mix of sustainable design elements for the sake of the environment and also experiments of NRG initiatives. Learn more about all of the features of the project on NRG’s website, here.

Ms. Zucosky discussed trends they are currently seeing in office space design: layouts that allow for more natural light into the center of the floor plan, open work spaces, huddle areas, game room and other elements to attract Millennials to companies. Mr. Walsh commented that many of the trends JZA+D has been noticing are in fact being employed within the new NRG building. Check out some of JZA+D’s projects here.

What Ewing Business is Getting a $2.125M Boost?

Written by caitie on . Posted in Around Central New Jersey, News.

The Trenton-Mercer Airport, located in Ewing, NJ, will be receiving $2.125 million as part of a state grant program specifically created to add value to New Jersey’s airports through improvement projects. County Executive Brian Hughes says “I think this recognizes that the Trenton-Mercer Airport is of regional importance.”

The Trenton-Mercer Airport is home to Frontier Airlines, who has flown out of Ewing since 2012.

Read the full story here.

Glut, defunct & stranded: What do these words describe?

Written by caitie on . Posted in Around Central New Jersey, News.

NJBiz uses these words (in the article linked below) to describe suburban corporate campuses in New Jersey- with enough combined square footage to fill five Empire State Buildings.

PlanSmart NJ has taken on the task of developing a “toolkit” of sorts for municipalities to begin to deal with the 14.5 million square feet of vacant, obsolete office and/or lab space in 94 of the state’s largest (over 200K sf) buildings. These campuses that dot New Jersey’s suburban landscape are often referred to as “stranded assets” and will need some creative thinking to reposition them.

“We’re looking at it holistically — that this is an economic development project, it’s an environmental protection project, it’s a resource efficiency project,” said Ann Brady, PlanSmart NJ’s executive director. “We think there’s a lot of opportunity with these sites, to better connect them to the greater community, to use the infrastructure that’s already there, so we’re directing growth to areas where there’s already existing infrastructure.”

Oftentimes municipalities fear redevelopment, rezoning and mixed-use projects. PlanSmart NJ “hopes to frame the issue by quantifying the problem” with “a major two-year research project that will compile data on vacancy, demographics, property tax appeals and other metrics related to the sites, with the aim of creating a guidebook for local officials and sparking a policy change that could help them find new life as mixed-use assets”.

Read more in NJBiz.com here.

Mercer County Leaders Meet for Roundtable Discussion

Written by caitie on . Posted in Around Central New Jersey, News.

Leaders from 6 Mercer County towns came together to discuss their individual priorities and the future success of New Jersey as a whole.

Popular topics of conversation included the NJ Transportation Trust Fund, walkable communities and NRG Energy’s new building in the breakfast hosted last week by the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce.

West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, Princeton Mayer Liz Lempert, Pennington borough administrator Eileen Heinzel, Hopewell Township Mayor Harvey Lester, Hopewell Borough Mayor Paul Anzano and East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov were in attendance for the roundtable talk.

To read more about the conversation visit nj.com.

Urban Renewal Without an Urban Center

Written by caitie on . Posted in News.

Urban crawl: After many years, the time is right for towns to create urban pockets where none exists

Urban renewal has worked in Montclair. It has worked in Morristown.

But what can developers and local officials do when they have no urban center to renew?

They can create one.

Read the full story on njbiz.com

Trenton: New Mayor, New Plan

Written by caitie on . Posted in Uncategorized. 82 Comments on Trenton: New Mayor, New Plan

Trenton 250

Mercer Oak Realty was in attendance last week at the recently renovated Wyndham Garden on West Lafayette Street in the Capitol City as MIDJersey Chamber welcomed Trenton’s newly-elected Mayor Eric Jackson and learned more about the Trenton250 plan.

Opening remarks were delivered by the Honorable Eric Jackson, a Capitol City native and Fairleigh Dickinson graduate. Jackson had a 17 year career with the City of Trenton before taking the position of City Public Works Director in Plainfield, NJ and then returning to Trenton in July, this time as Mayor.

Mayor Jackson addressed the business community and made it clear that he was grateful for their support and aware of how important local industry is to helping Trenton realize its full potential.

“Having a Mayor in office who understands the role that the local business community can play in the revitalization of Trenton is key. The current GrowNJ tax incentives make Trenton an especially attractive option for a large company headquarters, creating a nearly rent-free scenario for up to 10 years in certain cases. For example, a property we represent, the proposed Vista Center, is an approved 25-story LEED platinum office tower located directed across from the Trenton Transit Center. That incentive package, coupled with a business friendly atmosphere and responsible government is integral to drawing a large company and up to 1,000 employees to Trenton. An influx of professionals spending their days in Trenton, many of them eventually moving there to be closer to work, would do wonders to kick-start the economy.” explains Sab Russo, President of Mercer Oak Realty.

The Trenton250 team presented its concept for achieving a community driven long-range Master Plan to guide Trenton through its 250th Anniversary (which will be in 2042). The concept behind Trenton250 is to gain a deeper understanding and knowledge of Trenton- its strengths and its weaknesses- and use that to create a vision that capitalizes on the city’s unique assets, and addresses its problem areas. Trenton250 is hoping to engage the community in every step of the process through various in-person and online forms.

Check out Trenton250.org to learn more about the plan and become part of the discussion.

We look forward to seeing Trenton move forward into a bright future.