Coming Soon to 4301: Acutech, eComServer, Bowne
Ikon Office Solutions: Current Tenant
Teaching Technology: Hands-On for Kids
Corrections or additions?
This article by Barbara Fox was published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on July 28,
1999. All rights reserved.
Corporate Office Properties Trust Buys Building
Another long-languishing building is now full. The
property directly across from Dow Jones, at 4301 Route 1 South, had
never been at capacity since it was built 12 years ago. The 61,330
square-foot Princeton Executive Campus has just been bought for $6
million by Corporate Office Properties Trust and will have three new
tenants come September — Bowne, AcuTech Consulting, and eComserver
Inc. Bowne is a financial publisher new to Princeton, while AcuTech
and eComServer are expanding from Forrestal Village. The building
is now the corporate headquarters for a publicly-held firm, Guest
Supply (GSY), which designs, markets, and manufactures hotel amenities
and cleaning supplies. The nation’s second largest copy machine company,
Ikon Office Services, is among the other three current tenants.
Prospects for Princeton Executive Campus had sagged during the early
1990s, perhaps because it did not have a Princeton address. It was
70 percent vacant in 1996 when the developer, the Punia Company, sold
it to Fox River Real Estate Holdings.
COPT, a Philadelphia-based REIT (https://www.copt.com), formerly
operated as the Shidler Group. It now owns 13 properties (including
the old IBM complex in Dayton) in the Princeton market, a total of
725,000 square feet. “We acquired Princeton Executive Campus for
$98 per square foot, which is 30 percent below replacement cost,”
says Rand Griffin, president and COO of COPT, “and the property
offers significant future upside due to its below market leases.”
John Buschman and Tom Romano of Buschman Partners represented both
buyer and seller.
Current tenants (such as lawyer Alan B. Zublatt and the New Jersey
Foster Parents Association) are paying rent in the mid teens. Now
that the building is fully leased, new tenants are paying in the low
$20s, says a COPT spokesperson. Another plus is the announcement that
this building will be near to — but not in the path of — I-92.
Top Of PageComing Soon to 4301: Acutech, eComServer, Bowne
AcuTech Consulting Inc. , 116 Village Boulevard,Suite 200, Princeton 08540-5799. Larry Aleksandrich, group manager.609-951-2211; fax, 609-951-2281. Home page: https://www.acutech-consulting.com.The consulting company is moving to 3,800 square feet at PrincetonExecutive Center. It provides consulting, training, and software servicesfor state and federal process safety and risk management regulationcompliance. It is a value-added reseller of five software productlines for risk management and process safety. For instance, ReleaseRate is a Windows tool that calculates discharge rates based on accidentalreleases of stored toxic or flammable materials from process equipmentand piping.eComServer Inc., 32 Franklin Corner Road, Lawrenceville08648. 609-219-0550; fax, 609-951-2240. Home page: https://www.ecomserver.com.This firm moved from Forrestal Village to temporary quarters on FranklinCorner Road but plans to move to 10,000 square feet at Princeton ExecutiveCampus by early September and grow from 30 to 80 employees. The recruitingpage of its website features an offer of assistance with immigrationforms and obtaining green cards.Raj K. Salgam, the CEO, played a key role in the growth of startupDB-Tech Inc. (now known as WebSci Technologies) on Route 1 North.Nixon Patel, president and CTO, had worked for IBM but also foundedObjectware Consulting Inc. and co-founded Global Consultants Inc.,a corporate resource and solutions provider company.For its middleware — enabling software that operates between theoperating system and the end-user — eComServer uses XML markuplanguages, among others, and partners with major software firms. Oneproduct under development is a powerful unconventional search engine,called Wormhole, that is scheduled to undergo its beta test in September.Bowne & Co., 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014,212-886-0614. Home page: https://www.bowne.comThis venerable financial publisher will send to Princeton a smallgroup of programmers, supporting litigation and mutual funds programs.”We will see what we will do after that,” says William Coote,the treasurer.Top Of PageIkon Office Solutions: Current TenantIkon Document Service, 4301 Route 1 South, PrincetonExecutive Campus, Suite 125, Box 366, Monmouth Junction 08852. JimBocchino, managing partner. 609-720-1622; fax, 609-720-1624.Ikon Office Solutions (IKN), 4301 Route 1 South,Princeton Executive Campus Suite 125, Monmouth Junction 08852. 973-882-1989.Home page: https://www.ikon.com.Founded in 1965 by Tink (Tinkham) Veale as a specialty manufacturingcompany called Alco Standard Corporation, this firm went public thesame year. It moved into various fields — chemicals, healthcare,and wine and spirits, and by 1997 it had sold off or spun off allcompanies but two. Its paper distribution firm, Unisource Worldwide,was sold to Georgia Pacific. Meanwhile, Alco bought a couple hundredoffice machine distribution companies and changed its name to IkonOffice Solutions, trading on the New York Stock Exchange as IKN. Nowit offers office equipment and facilities management plus computernetworking. Its subsidiary, Ikon Document Services takes charge ofproducing, moving, and filing documents.James Forese is president and CEO of Ikon Office Solutions, whichemploys 250 people in Malvern, Pennsylvania, and 40,000 employeesin 1,000 locations worldwide.”The difference between an Ikon and a Xerox is that Ikon partnerswith a lot of different vendors,” says a spokesperson, who claimsIkon is second only to Xerox in sales for office machines and is thenumber one distributor of Canon products in the United States. Itis also an authorized vendor for Ricoh, Oce, and Muratec.Top Of PageDayton Expansion: AT&TIn Dayton COPT has a gilt-edged tenant, AT&T, whichis gobbling up space as fast as possible. The complex here is knownas Princeton Technology Center, but those who have been around forawhile will remember when it was an IBM punch card factory. Earlierthis year COPT bought an adjoining property, Rhone Poulenc’s warehouse.In 1995 Clay Hamlin bought the 342,000-foot Princeton Technology Centeras corporate surplus for the Shidler Group (now part of COPT). Thecomplex has three buildings on 65 square miles at 429 Ridge Road.Staten Island-based Teleport Communications took an initial 40,000square feet here and grew rapidly. AT&T bought Teleport and that entirecomplex now houses AT&T Local Services.COPT paid $2.1 million for Rhone Poulenc’s property, a former chemicalmanufacturing plant and regional sales office for its surfactantsand specialties business group. COPT will put another $7 million intorenovations there. Buschman Partners and CB Richard Ellis representedthe buyer and seller, respectively. KSS Architecture of WitherspoonStreet is rehabbing the building inside and out, with GSA Constructionas the builder and Schoor DePalma for engineering design.– Barbara FoxTop Of PageTeaching Technology: Hands-On for KidsKids don’t learn by subject area but by experience,says Tony Gaule. They don’t come home and say “we studied opposingforces.” Instead, it’s “I built a bridge today.”Gaule, an Irishman who spent the first part of his career workingat Lenox, aims to add the fun of model-making and the excitement ofdiscovery to science classrooms. He moved the American headquartersof Technology Teaching Systems from a home office to Everett Drivein May. Based in the United Kingdom, it creates and distributes educationalmaterials covering hands-on science and design technology for elementaryand middle schools.”The approach has taken off around the country,” says Gaule.To learn by doing is an integrated approach to problem solving: Firstthe students design a solution to the problem, then they make thesolution.A typical problem: Take a card, dowel rods, spools, paper towel tubes,tape, glue, and scissors. Build a wheeled vehicle with carrying capacityand tipping function.Another series of problems features carnival rides such as ferriswheels, swings, and whirligigs. To make a merry-go-round from a yogurtcup and a paper plate, fix a plate to rotate on a toilet paper tubeand fashion milk cartons into the shape of passenger seats.Based in the United Kingdom, the firm has three staff members in Princeton,several sales representatives around the country, and a sister companyin Canada. Kits range in cost from under $5 to several hundred dollars;materials are manufactured around the world and assembled in severallocations in Canada and the United States. Kits are being sold directlyto school districts, at conventions, and most recently through directmail.Gaule insists that though many publishing companies offer hands-onscience curricula, no one occupies his technology niche. “Theconcept of technology is real-world problem solving,” says Gaule.”We are selling products that will give the kids the skills theyneed when they get into high school. We are seeing great positivereaction from high school science teachers for using it as a feedersystem.”Gaule is working with the International Technical Education Association(ITEA) on NASA’s program called Technology for All Americans, tryingto define standards. He is also working with such early adapting statesas New York, which is in the second year of a five-year project toenhance its math, science, and technology curriculum. “We expectthat when national standards are adopted next March, more and morestates will come forward.”It’s no accident that this company is based in the United Kingdom,known for its early work in integrating learning with hands-on activities,and that it has a branch in Canada. The Canadian market is more maturethan the American market, more cross-curricular, says Gaule. “Wedon’t expect to get rich quick.”The company also provides materials and trainers for teacher workshops.”What we have that others don’t is the ability to go in and developnot just tools and materials, but programs for teachers to roll outand implement design technology. We run workshops. We teach districtsto run workshops. They in turn roll it out to teachers,” saysGaule.At age six Gaule had his own first experience with technology education.He grew up in Dublin, where his Madrid-born mother and his Irish fatherhad an industrial parts distribution business. His father, who wastrained as an engineer, brought home an electric train set. “I’dbe putting in a round track, and he’d be saying, let’s put an obstaclethere, and find a way to put the track around it or under it or overit.” After graduating from the University of Dublin in 1983 hecame to the U.S., earning an MBA from Rider while working for Lenoxfor 10 years as an inventory manager. He is married to an accountantat Schering Plough.The company’s kits may resemble home-spun versions of an Erector set,but they are not something you will want to buy to keep your childbusy during the summer — unless you are willing to sit at thekitchen table and be your child’s teaching partner. “We wouldlike to explore the after-school program market or the home schoolingmarket, but it would need a very conscientious and a very forwardthinking parent to sit down and do it,” says Gaule, “It’snot a `here’s the pieces’ project.”Teachers can buy the $7 to $9 kits with all the materials needed,including special hack saws that don’t cut little hands, or they canbuy the workbooks and assemble the materials themselves. “Sometimesteachers don’t have the funds and need to improvise,” says Gaule.One $13 kit in the “wheels” series has enough wood, wheels,and paper supplies for an entire class to build a land yacht. He willwork with a particular school district to adapt kits for specificneeds. “On the tip of Long Island they implement the curriculumwith a lot of work on lighthouses,” says Gaule. One kit on lighthouses,coming up.Technology Teaching Systems Inc., 39 Everett Drive,Building D, Princeton Junction 08550-5307. Tony Gaule, general manager.609-716-1500; fax, 800-679-0802. Home page: https://www.tts-group.com.Top Of PageDeathsRobert H. Howe, 66, on July 16. He was an analyst at PrincetonEconomic Institute at 214 Carnegie Center.James J. Bloor, 58, on July 19. He owned Old BenchmarkRealty and had been a police officer with Princeton Borough and WashingtonTownship.Peter A. Bordes, 71, on July 19. He founded Greater MediaInc. in East Brunswick.David Ogilvy, 88, on July 21. After working as a marketresearcher in Princeton he founded Ogilvy & Mather in 1948.Robert C. Kascik, 63, on July 22. He had been the servicemanager of Princeton Nassau Conover Motor Co.Marianne Pasley, 48, on July 22. She was a jewelry designerand had worked at Firestone Library.Alan Karcher, 56, on July 26. He had been chairman ofthe Mercer County Democratic Party and state assembly speaker, andhe wrote “New Jersey’s Municipal Madness” (U.S. 1, February17).Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
