Contracts Awarded: SES Americom
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Barbara Fox were prepared for the October 6,
2004 issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Foreign Trade Zones
Thanks to the significant expansion of foreign trade zones, many
landlords can offer an extra inducement to manufacturing companies
looking for space. After several years of planning, the federal
government last month expanded Mercer County’s quota of Foreign Trade
Zones (FTZs) from 71 acres to more than 1,000 acres in East Windsor,
Windsor, Trenton, Ewing, Washington, and Hamilton.
FTZs are considered to be outside of U.S. customs. Companies within
these zones defer their customs duties or excise taxes until what they
have imported — or what they make — is shipped to someplace else in
the United States. If the goods are shipped overseas, the tax is never
paid, according to the Mercer County Office of Economic Opportunity.
Conair, a consumer appliance manufacturer in on Milford Drive in East
Windsor, is the big winner for this. For seven years Conair has an
assembly and distribution facility that has been designated as an FTZ.
With the new zoning on Milford Road — 290 acres allocated to a
half-dozen parcels of vacant land — Conair has approval for a
450,000-square-foot building on 27 acres across from its current
building.
Some of the vacant Milford Road property is visible from the New
Jersey Turnpike, and this may be why press releases on the FTZ
bafflingly referred to properties at “Exit 8 and the Route 33
corridor” as if all of Route 33 was the beneficiary. Only Milford Road
got the designation in East Windsor, says Janice Mironov, the mayor.
She emphasizes that Conair has the only “activated” FTZ in the county.
(The other longstanding FTZ, at the Mercer-Trenton Airport, is
inactive.)
One current tenant of Matrix Industrial Park in Robbinsville,
Mercedes-Benz, asked for the FTZ designation during lease
negotiations, and that alerted Matrix to the potential that FTZ might
bring, says COO Alec Taylor. “We got a temporary designation until a
permanent designation came through,” says Taylor, who says the whole
process took nearly two years. Mercedes-Benz moved into its new
distribution center six months ago, and with the FTZ designation it
pays duty on the parts when they leave the building, not when they
arrive. Reducing paperwork is another FTZ advantage. Shipments can be
consolidated at the port rather than being processed more frequently.
Other designated Matrix Development properties I-195 Business Park
(145 acres in Hamilton), and Northeast Business Park in Washington.
Additional sites are 1425 to 1445 Lower Ferry Road in Ewing; the
Horizon Center in Hamilton; in Trenton at the Marine Terminal and Hill
industrial parks; and North Gold Industrial Parks in Washington
township.
Some of the FTZ zones are just one-building addresses. At 7 Graphics
Drive in Ewing, for instance, a 72,300 square-foot building formerly
occupied by JDS Uniphase is on sale for $7.9 million. This building,
also known as “Delaware Crossing,” can be leased for $14 per square
foot, net, and the space leased can be as small as 5,000 square feet.
Among its amenities are heavy HVAC, heavy power, T-1 lines, and that
it is wired for video. The “extra” of being zoned FTZ has brought
queries but no signed leases, says Paul McArthur of Trillium Realty,
who is leasing the property. “The FTZ zones are generally for land
to be developed,” says McArthur, “but we had 7 Graphics Drive
designated as a separate location. We believe it is a target for
pharmaceutical companies and generic pharmas that can import raw
materials, manufacture them, and export them. Even if they sell into
the U.S. market, they don’t pay duty until they sell.
The reason for pharmas to manufacture here, rather than in another
country, is so they can be supervised by the Food & Drug
Administration and tap the attractive labor pool — skilled laboratory
technicians. “That is one of the reasons why the Princeton corridor
has venture capital and start-up biotech,” says McArthur, “because the
labor pool goes way back to GE and Sarnoff. People didn’t take the
relocation packages because they wanted to stay here.”
“Getting the FTZ designation has become a very popular thing to
broaden your base of marketing,” says McArthur. “It is consistent with
New Jersey trying to create jobs in the high end, high tech
industries, where value added manufacturing can take place.”
Has it worked? Not yet, says McArthur. “We have had it on our
marketing material since January, and it hasn’t gotten us a tenant.”
— Barbara Fox
Real Estate Company Moves: Segal
On October 1, after 20 years in Lawrence, Stephen Segal Commercial
Real Estate moved back to Trenton to a facility it manages — the
Marine Terminal Business Center. Phone and fax are new.
Trenton’s boat launching area is just a couple hundred feet away, but
the river did not overflow its banks and this property — six feet
above ground level — was not damaged by the flood. “After construction
of the tunnel, it became really accessible,” says Segal.
His nine-person office had had 3,450 square feet on Brunswick Pike and
occupies about the same amount of space in Trenton. The other tenant
of the building is the environmental engineering firm, Sadat
Associates. A look-alike building has been vacant since the lease
terminated for National Data Corporation.
“I had a hand in building it, and we have managed it for 15 years,”
says Segal. A graduate of Central High in Philadelphia and Penn State
University, Segal’s father was in the wholesale furniture business,
and his wife’s family was in real estate. “Plus, it is time to move
back to Trenton. I formed this company in what was then known as
Trenton Trust building in 1968, and we have grown from there.”
Segal Commercial Real Estate, 1545 Lamberton Road, MarineTerminal Business Center, Trenton 08611. Stephen M. Segal, president.609-394-7557; fax, 609-394-6894. Home page: www.segalinc.comTop Of PageCrosstown Moves: JingoliJingoli Organization, 850 Bear Tavern Road, Ewing 08628.Stacy Jingoli Markowitz, management representative. 609-883-7070; fax,609-883-8359. Www.jingoliproperties.comIn June the Jingoli Organization moved from its 3131 Princeton Pikesite to another of its developments, Mountain View Office Park, inJune. Founded in 1921 its portfolio also includes 100 and 101 ThanetCircle in Princeton and Parkway Corporate Center in Ewing. Phone andfax are new.Top Of PageNew at Forrestal: PatrinelyThe Patrinely Group breaks ground on the Princeton Corporate Campus atForrestal Center, 1100 Campus Road, on Thursday, October 14, at 4 p.m.It is the first speculative office park to break ground in the statein the last five years. Brad Fenlon and Craig Eisenhardt of CB RichardEllis are responsible for leasing the first 167,000 square-footfive-story building.This new campus, located between College Road and Scudders Mill Road,adjacent to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, obtained approvals in2001 for five buildings and 800,000 square feet on 71.6 acres. At thattime the Patrinely Group was in the process of buying the land fromPrinceton University and expected to begin construction in 2002.Development on the tract was originally approved in 1999.The Houston-based Patrinely Group also built 100 College Road West and150 College Road West, totaling 225,000 square feet on 24 acres. Itslong-term plans call for the construction of four similar buildingsand parking lots for 3,200 vehicles, all on a 59-acre portion of thesite.The recently built Campus Road is at the back of the site. Itparallels Route 1 and runs from Scudders Mill Road to StelleratorDrive and has been extended to College Road.Top Of PageHospital Fitness: ReidyGary Reidy has opened his second fitness center in the Princeton areathat is associated with a hospital. Reidy had partnered with PrincetonHealthcare System for the Princeton Fitness and Wellness Center onRoute 206 in 2003 (U.S. 1, June 18, 2003). Now he is managing generalpartner for the RWJ Hamilton Center for Health and Wellness onQuakerbridge Road, which had its grand opening on Saturday, October 2.Like Princeton’s facility, this one has junior Olympic-size andtherapeutic pools and a whirlpool spa, plus rehabilitation onhigh-tech equipment for the hospital patients.Meanwhile two more fitness centers aim to get Princeton’s populationtrim and buff. A Gold’s Gym will move into the former Syms building onQuakerbridge Road in 2005, and the Pennington Ewing Athletic Center(PEAC) is expanding to Lower Ferry Road.RWJ Hamilton Center for Health and Wellness, 3100Quakerbridge Road, Clover Square Shopping Center, Mercerville 08619.Gary Reidy, managing general partner. 609-584-7600; fax, 609-584-7633.Top Of PageTaylor a Tenant: Carter RoadFour months after buying the Carter Road campus that used to belong toBell Labs, Berwind Property Group has a new tenant, SFBC TaylorTechnology. The pharmaceutical service company has a 10-year lease foralmost 36,000 square feet at 330 Carter Road. It is now called theTechnology Center of Princeton, as opposed to the Technology Center ofNew Jersey, the buildings on Route 1 in North Brunswick that are ownedby the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.Jerry Fennelly of NAI Fennelly represented both the tenant and thelandlord. Another 57,000 square feet here is being occupied by LexiconPharmaceuticals. Taylor’s building has a total of 220,000 feet. “The355-acre site can accommodate up to an additional 500,000 square feetof office development,” says Christopher J. Locatelli, vice presidentof Berwind.The previous owner of this property, Maryland-based Townsend Capital,spent more than $8.8 million to fit-up the long-empty building, andBerwind spent $29 million on such capital improvements as a newexterior glass curtain wall, a new room, new mechanical and electricalsystems, and a new two-story atrium lobby. Wulff Architects is thearchitect and Penntex Construction the general contractor.Last summer, when Taylor Technology was sold to SFBC International for$20.9 million, SFBC promised to expand the 55-person 13-year-old firm.It provides bioanalytical laboratory services.Top Of PageCompany Sold: OmniplanarOmniplanar Inc., 14 Washington Road, Building 1, Box 8558,Princeton 08543-8558. Eric P. Batterman, president. 609-275-4400; fax,609-275-9474.Omniplanar, an imaging software firm, was sold for about $13 millionto a Blackwood-based firm, Metrologic Instruments (MTLG), according toa September 27 press release. Metrologic says it will continue tooperate Omniplanar at its current location, and the current staff willstay there during the ownership transition.Metrologic designs, manufactures and markets bar code scanning andhigh-speed automated data capture systems solutions using laser,holographic and vision-based technologies. It has been licensingOmniplanar’s package of bar code reading software for 2D imaging forfixed position, conveyor belt, and hand held readers.Top Of PageNew in Town: SonalSonal Sportswear, 1095 Cranbury-South River Road, Suite 4,Jamesburg. Peter Kamani, distribution manager. 609-409-3333. Homepage: www.sonalsportswear.comSonal Sportswear, an importer of women’s clothing, opened a warehousein Jamesburg in early fall. The headquarters is at 1385 Broadway,Suite 711A.Top Of PageBank News: HVCBHopewell Valley Community Bank (HWDY), 4 Route 31 South,Box 999, Pennington 08534. James Hyman, president and CEO.609-466-2900; fax, 609-730-9144. Home page: www.hvcbonline.comThe bank left its space in Pennytown Village, at 145 Route 31, andtook over the space where the WaWa had been, at Routes 31 and 518.This space offers an additional 1,000 square feet of office space foradministrative functions. The headquarters remains at 4 Route 31South.In line with its intention to open one branch a year, future planscall for a new loan production office in Cranbury and a branch inBrandon Farms. The new branch will have a community room, availablefree of charge to area organizations.Top Of PageContracts Awarded: SES AmericomSES Americom Inc. (An SES Global Co.), 4 Research Way,Princeton 08540. Dean Olmstead, chief executive officer. 609-987-4000;fax, 609-987-4517. Home page: www.ses-americom.comA subsidiary of SES Americom at 4 Research Way is doing final testingon WorldSat-2, the first Spacebus 4000 spacecraft manufactured byAlcatel Space. Later this year the satellite is scheduled to travelfor its launch in Kazakhstan, and it will support applications such asbroadcasting and high-speed Internet connections.Top Of PageDeathsCarol Denise May, 42, on September 7. She had a planning and marketingfirm in Princeton.William S. Borden Jr., 82, on September 29. He founded the W.S. BordenReal Estate Company. A memorial service will be at the PrincetonUniversity Chapel on Saturday, October 9, at 11 a.m.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
