Expect to see another new office building going up soon in the shadow of the Carnegie Center, but it already has a lead tenant. The Carnegie Center-based law firm Hill Wallack has signed a 43,500-square-foot lease at 19 Roszel Road. The company will relocate its headquarters to the top two floors of the first building in the 100,500-square-foot, two-building development, which will be called Roszel Square.
Construction is scheduled to begin before the end of the year and finished in early 2015. The building currently at the site, occupied by Core Laboratories, will be torn down. Core Labs is reported to be shopping for new space in the great Princeton area.
Commercial real estate firm Cassidy Turley brokered the deal. Milton H. Charbonneau, senior vice president of Cassidy Turley, represented the development team, led by Andy Gottesman of Gottesman Real Estate Partners and Michael Seeve of Mountain Development Corp. Sab Russo, president of Mercer Oak Realty, represented the tenant. Charbonneau is heading up pre-leasing efforts for the remaining 19,000 square feet on the first floor of the phase one building, as well as the second, 38,000-square-foot building that makes up phase two.
Hill Wallack chose Roszel Road because of the convenient location, efficient interior layout and opportunity to create a cutting-edge legal work environment in a new space. A San Francisco-based architecture firm, Gensler, will design the space.
“Roszel Square is a high-design alternative to standard offices in the area,” Gottesman said, adding that it is five minutes from both downtown Princeton and the Princeton Junction train station.
The phase two Building of Roszel Square features 13,000-square-foot floor plates. “The remaining space we’re pre-leasing is perfect for technology companies or other smaller users that want the advantages of being headquartered in Princeton’s newest office building within the Einstein’s Alley corridor,” Charbonneau said.
Charbonneau said the building is the first to be built in the Princeton area in 2013. “That’s always a good portent for the market,” he said. “It does feel like activity is increasing down here.”
Charbonneau added that the fact that the law firm represents many technology and biotech companies was a good sign for the overall high-tech industry in the area.
He also said the building itself is indicative of the most recent trend in office space, which is towards smaller “boutique,” high-design office spaces.
Hill Wallack LLP Attorneys at Law, 202 Carnegie Center, Suite 200, Box 5226, Princeton 08543-5226; 609-924-0808; fax, 609-452-1888. Robert W. Bacso Esq., managing partner. www.hillwallack.com.
