Basketball News: Caliper’s Turn
Corrections or additions?
Life in the Fast Lane
These articles by Barbara Fox and Peter J. Mladineo were published
in U.S. 1 Newspaper on February 18, 1998. All rights reserved.
The word of the day is double for everything we are
doing,” says Donna Jakubowski, spokesperson for Bristol-Myers
Squibb. “We are doubling the size of pharmaceutical drug
discovery,
doubling the number of new drugs entering the development pipeline
in the near term, doubling that number again in the long term,
doubling
the number of drugs in late development, and doubling product launches
in the next three years.”
To permanently house a major productivity program that is expected
to save $1.5 billion, Bristol-Myers Squibb has bought a prominent
Route 1 office building at 100 Nassau Park Boulevard. It has also
started construction on a new building at the Route 206 headquarters
of its pharmaceutical group, is reoccupying a building on Business
Park Drive, and is moving as fast as possible into the former Mobil
research center in Hopewell. Overall the pharmaceutical firm has added
about 1,400 employees to Central New Jersey since last year, growing
from 6,600 to 8,000. It also operates sites on Scudders Mill Road,
New Brunswick, and Cranbury.
B-MS’s Global Business Services Center, staffed by 800 employees now,
resulted from a 1994 productivity effort to reduce costs and reinvest
the benefits in future growth with the eventual aim of increasing
productivity by $1.5 billion through 1998. “The program strives
to exploit advanced technology and work collaboratively across
functions
and business units to share information and services and to reduce
costs,” says Jakubowski.
Occupying 2 1/2 floors at the 220,000-foot Nassau Park, this center
supports businesses in North America, Puerto Rico, and Latin America.
It includes Financial Shared Services, Global Strategic Sourcing
(unified
purchasing), Demand Management, and Global Order to Cash. A similar
center has been established in England to provide shared services
for Europe.
Two outside occupants — the law firm of Pellettieri Rabstein &
Altman and Valuation Research — take up the remaining 10 percent
of the space at 100 Nassau Park, and Jakubowski says her firm intends
to maintain those leases. Connecticut General Life Insurance Company
(CIGNA) was the owner and the selling price of the 12-year-old
building,
which includes a cafeteria, was not disclosed. Early in its existence
the long, green-faced building looking out on Route 1 South, was being
characterized as a “sick” building because of some workers’
persistent complaints of headaches and dizziness. Extensive
modifications
were made in the HVAC and the complaints subsided.
Last year Nassau Park added 300 workers for the current total of 800,
and such “staffing up” reflects Bristol-Myers Squibb’s
aggressive
growth plans. Also growing are the sites in Hopewell, Skillman, and
Lawrence.
Eventually the former Mobil site in Hopewell will have 1,200 workers,
and about 800 have already moved into jobs in drug discovery
laboratories,
administration, and information management.
Convatec, at Headquarters Park Drive in Skillman, has grown from 400
to 700 employees. It manufactures ostomy, wound, skin care and
continence
products, and it is headed by the firm’s just-appointed highest
ranking
woman, Christine Poon.
The Route 206 facility in Lawrence (the company refers to it as the
Princeton site) currently houses 2,000 employees and will add 200
discovery chemists by the middle of next year. Under construction
is a 150,000 square foot laboratory and office module, connected with
the existing structure, for state-of-the art chemistry. Also under
construction is a clinical unit, to support clinical studies at Robert
Wood Johnson Hospital at Hamilton.
Remaining stable are the distribution center at Exit
8A, which employs 200 workers, and 777 Scudders Mill Road, which
houses
domestic sales and training offices for the Pharmaceutical Group,
Apothecon, and Convatec. About 2,000 people report to work there.
Because the Hopewell campus has drawn some away, the population at
the New Brunswick headquarters has diminished by about 50 people,
and now 1,450 employees are engaged in administration, R&D, and some
manufacturing at 1 Squibb Drive. (Many of the original manufacturing
jobs went to Indiana and Puerto Rico when Squibb merged with
Bristol-Myers).
Add in 60 people at Forrestal Greens and a handful on Alexander Road.
Douglas P. Tunnell, senior vice president of Global Business Services
and Planning, points out that Nassau Park’s location is central and
attributes the purchase to “our continuing commitment to New
Jersey.”
— Barbara Fox
Top Of PageSecondary School’sQuick Move
You can’t run a building that serves 76 countries and
1,200 test sites from a trailer. So says Regan Kenyon, executive
director
of the Secondary School Admission Test Board. His organization bought
a building, rehabbed it, and moved in — all within three months.
Why the rush? Because SSATB is a test organization and has a testing
season, just a one-week delay would have put off the move for eight
months.
“If we had delayed one week we would not have had the requisite
time run parallel computer systems and test them at the new site,”
says Kenyon. SSATB’s transition could be a model for companies making
a crucial move quickly.
SSATB develops and administers tests primarily for admission to
independent
schools. A non-profit educational organization, it moved last fall
from a building that it owned, an historic Steadman building on
Stockton
Street in Princeton Borough, to a building twice as big that it
purchased,
a Route 518 building formerly owned by the Princeton Bio Center.
Known most recently as the Carl C. Pfeiffer Institute, the Bio Center
was founded in 1973 as an outpatient nutrition clinic specializing
in biochemical testing, allergies, and diet and treating a variety
of disorders and diseases. The institute has closed but the vitamin
sales division has relocated as Princeton Bio Center to 1000
Herrontown
Road.
SSATB paid $1.3 million for the 11,000-foot building with 3,000 feet
of basement storage, and the renovations totaled $400,000. Lawrence
and Sharon Tarantino did the design and Sweetwater Construction
knocked
out 30 walls, removed washstands, took out a big laboratory with
showers
and a biohazardous refrigerator, and totally rewired it for computers.
In addition to “SSATB green,” used in the logo, the decor
is cream, tan, gray, and white plus stainless steel and glass in the
office area and mahogany and teak in the public area. “I wanted
a high tech look in operations, and a traditional look in the
executive
end — and no transition,” says Kenyon.
Allied handled a moving contract that specified “no
18-wheelers”
on the residential street. “The 12 trucks were out in the parking
lot waiting for the final certificate of occupancy,” says Kenyon.
“The business was down two weeks. We had everything run in
parallel,
all the phones and high speed international faxes, but at the same
time we couldn’t immediately overload the server with 30
terminals.”
Why move? In addition to needing more space, SSATB needed a different
floor plan. Until five years ago it was part of Educational Testing
Service and required no space for operations, only for hosting and
conferences. Now it must store tests. “We essentially had a
horizontal
business in a vertical building,” says Kenyon. “We had to
process tests and take them through computers, and we were carrying
them up and down three and four floors.” All under tight security.
SSATB employs 17 full-timers and brings in 15 temps during the testing
season. That does not include the cadre of consultants who help write
the test, which has 72 forms. Student fees of $57 to take the test
constitute most of the SSATB’s $3.5 million budget. Roughly $250,000
($300 to $500 from each of 600 member schools) is collected from the
schools.
When parents receive the scores they are often shocked, because the
test compares students applying to such top schools as Andover,
Princeton
Day School, and Hun. “They are used to dumbed down achievement
tests,” says Kenyon.
Kenyon insists testing does not favor the elite. “I see it as
a tool of access,” says Kenyon. “We give fee waivers out to
almost 10 percent of the kids, and we find a lot of kids in inner
cities could score well on this.”
“I grew up in a family that emphasized education,” says
Kenyon.
His mother was a teacher who earned her Ph.D., and his father, a
foundryman,
went to night school, and ended up as a librarian. He loved
Shakespeare
and named his son after one of King Lear’s daughters. “The other
two were Cordelia and Goneril, and I think I lucked out,” Kenyon
jokes.
He majored in American history at the University of
Mississippi, Class of ’69, and stayed to earn a master’s in education.
He taught “at risk youth” in St. Louis, founded a minority
high school and independent day school at St. Croix, then during the
Carter administration served as the first federal official in the
United States office for private schools. After earning his doctor’s
degree at Harvard he came to Princeton in 1983 be in charge of
separating
SSATB from ETS. He has a son and a daughter at Lawrenceville School.
“It had become evident the two organizations had different
educational
philosophies,” says Kenyon. “We deal with many fewer
test-takers
than they. Just like any smaller company we are able to offer a
customer
service at a different level.”
Also ETS had established another test, the ISEE, the Independent
School
Entrance Exam, and it was competing against itself. “Their test
is not meant to be as difficult as ours. We do have the bulk of the
well-known schools. We probably have more minority test takers than
they do.”
“It’s meant to distinguish high academic ability, and it deals
with the ceiling of the population,” says Kenyon. The test is
not federally regulated because it is used only by private
institutions
for eighth through tenth grades.
The Tarantinos and contractor Bob Dunham had won an award for historic
renovation on the Stockton Street house, which was appraised several
years ago at $1.25 million. Princeton Borough is temporarily occupying
it during the renovation of Borough Hall. The structure is zoned for
residential or nonprofit use and, says Kenyon, “we want to be
very careful who we sell it to.”
Secondary School Admission Test Board, 862 Route518, Skillman 08558. Regan Kenyon, executive director. 609-683-4440;fax, 609-683-1702. Home page: https://www.ssatb.org.ssat.Top Of PageBonner’s New HomeNeed a 12-person conference room for your communityor nonprofit meeting? Forget the church basement, have your meetingin a 150-year-old $850,000 mansion on Mercer Street. It’s the newhome of the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation, and it camecomplete with an extra conference room that the foundation’s executivedirector, Wayne Meisel, invites you to use.The 17-year-old Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation, operateson a national level to support faith-based organizations (synagoguesand churches) in their hunger-fighting efforts. It also providesscholarshipsat 22 southeastern colleges. Bertram Bonner, who died in 1993, wasa developer who built 30,000 homes and apartments on the East Coastincluding the Quail Ridge townhomes in Franklin Township. His wifenow supervises the work of the foundation. Last week, in fact, shebought a $30,000 refrigerated truck to support the work for astatewidefood “gleaning” program, a program for which the foundationhelped Farmers Against Hunger land a $.5 million federal grant.In addition to being the traditional type of foundation that givesout money, the Bonner Foundation works actively with the institutionsto convene meetings, provide training, and develop materials –work traditionally done by separate nonprofit groups. Second, itoperatesas an advocate for the institutions as if it were a consortium. Italso brings its eight years of experience to the higher educationcommunity. “We do outreach, offering other colleges anduniversitiesthe chance to learn from our challenges and successes with our 23schools,” says Meisel.Princeton University owned the house, which it had been vacant sincefaculty members moved out about 10 years ago. Residential neighborswere concerned about preserving the integrity of the neighborhood,and in response a gravel driveway was used and no signs were erectedfor the parking slots.Mrs. Bonner bought and restored the building and donated it to thefoundation to serve as its headquarters. Including the renovationsit cost about $870,000 and comes with nine parking spaces. “Ourlease at 22 Chambers Street was ending, and it wasn’t clear whetherwe would get the space,” says Meisel. “At the same time thisbuilding came up.”The architect was Jeffrey Clarke of Clarke Caton Hintz in WestTrenton,and John Garretson, a member of the family that used to own Clayton’sdepartment store on Palmer Square, was the general contractor. Mrs.Bonner decorated and furnished the offices. “Mrs. Bonner’s wholeheart and soul was into this place,” says Meisel. “She didn’twant to leave us with a building that was semi-broke.”Operating from Mercer Street will not save money, because its upkeepis expensive. But it will assure the foundation a comfortableenvironmentin the decades to come. Is this place, in fact, too cushy for anantipovertyfoundation? Meisel is a notorious penny pincher when it comes tospendingfoundation money on administrative expenses, and he has thought thisquestion through: “I have talked to people getting money fromus — college presidents and local community groups — aboutthis very issue. Nobody has begrudged that we are here.””Our society is filled with dichotomies,” he says.”Princetonis filled with nice buildings. I think it makes all the differencein the world that the building was restored and given to us fromoutsidethe foundation. My feeling is, that that was the gift, and what Iwould like to do is make it as friendly and open as I possibly can,and get as much work done on these issues and causes that I canpossiblydo.””We are downtown, next to a private club (the Nassau Club), theseminary, and to the university,” says Meisel. “Given whatwe are doing in education, service, community and institutionalrelations,and given the people that we attract to the town — whether theybe college presidents or religious leaders involved in social justiceor local people convened to address community challenges andopportunities– I hope our presence here opens up a spirit in the town whilepreserving the integrity of the town.””It’s a great place to work,” says Meisel. “The wood andthe vibrations are kind of crisp and clear. I feel like I am workinginside a large violin.”The Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation Inc.,10 Mercer Street, Box 712, Princeton 08542-0712. Wayne W. Meisel,executive director. 609-924-6663; fax, 609-683-4626.Top Of PageExpansionsEvcor Distribution Plus, 2555 Route 130, Unit 3,Cranbury 08512. 609-409-1015; fax, 609-409-1014. E-mail:evcornj@aol.com.Home page: https://www.evcor.com.Got a question about postage rates? Stephen H. Cooperis the man to ask. Cooper is president of Evcor Distribution Plus,a “software integrator and value-added reseller” that recentlytook 3,800 square feet at Campus 130 in Cranbury.”We do software primarily for companies’ warehouse and shippingdepartments,” says Cooper. “We integrate an off-the-shelfpackage to meet the specific needs of our customers.””We help companies with small package carrier compliance andratingissues,” he says.The need for such a product is justifiable — recent changes inthe UPS system are a case in point. “It’s not as easy as it usedto be to ship UPS,” says Cooper. “The label has to look acertain way, the barcode has to look a certain way, the ratingstructureis getting more complicated as they add new service levels. Our jobis to understand what those compliance issues are.”Cooper, 39, studied marketing at the Philadelphia College of Textilesand Science (Class of 1980) and worked for a competitor, NeoPost,then located in Iselin, for the first part of his career. He startedEvcor in 1990 after seeing that “the flexible communications nichewasn’t being filled,” he says.”Even though it’s a small market to begin with there’s a big nichein there that wasn’t being introduced. So we went out and figuredout how to do it.”Evcor’s systems cost from $100 a month to $3,000 a month to lease,but, Cooper maintains, don’t quite qualify as a tough sell. “It’stougher than selling a stand-alone PC but not as hard quite as hardselling a warehouse management system,” says Cooper. “Thecompany has to change the way they do business to fit that automation.What we do the customer doesn’t have to change the way they dobusiness.We’re just enhancing the way they do business. Our products arecost-justifiableor people don’t do it.”Robbins concedes a little bit of dismay on moving. The old location,at 13 Main Street in Robbinsville, was next door to the belovedErnie’sPub. “We’re bummed,” he says. “No more beers andcheeseburgersat lunch time.” Instead, Evcor employees will have to acquaintthemselves with nearby Cranbury Station, 400 yards south on Route130. “That’s a pretty good pub,” he says.Rylan Forbes Consulting Group, 102 Campus Drive,Princeton 08540. Robert Criscuolo Jr. CPA, president. 609-419-0600;fax, 609-419-0737. Home page:https://www.acsysinc.com/rylan.htm.Rylan Forbes has announced a merger with ACSYS Resources, which alsohas a location at 5 Independence Way, one of seven offices in NewJersey and Pennsylvania. It provides accounting, finance, andinformationtechnology recruiting and staffing — permanent, temporary, orconsulting.Top Of PageCrosstown MovesW.D. Associates, 127 Route 206 South, Hamilton08610. 609-987-0199; fax, 609-585-9465.The accounting firm, headed by Wellington Davenport, a formerfinancialofficer at Johnson & Johnson, moved from Lawrence Commons. The phonenumber is answered at the new location. The fax is new.Top Of PageLeaving TownMeridian Enterprises Inc., 666 Plainsboro Road,Suite 648, Plainsboro 08536. Steve Puchalsky, vice president, sales.609-799-4403; fax, 609-799-7405.A marketing incentive firm based in St Louis has moved and did notrespond to requests for a forwarding address.Wells Fargo Alarm Services, 29 Emmons Drive,BuildingD, CN 5201, Princeton 08543-5201. Ray Walsh, general manager.800-927-2790.The security company moved from Emmons Drive to 50 Twosome Drive,Unit 5, Box 1013, Moorestown 08057. Phone, 800-927-2790; fax609-642-2207.American Homeowners Alliance, 3371 Route 1, Suite220, Lawrenceville 08648. John McGuire, president. 609-452-9595; fax,609-452-7235.The business that arranged group discount purchasing of legal fees,financial fees, and other real estate related items has apparentlymoved out of its quarters. The phone has been disconnected and thereis no listing in directory assistance. It moved into the space inearly 1996.John Hancock Acorn Group Insurance, 600 AlexanderRoad, Suite 101, Princeton 08540. 609-520-2044.The firm has closed this office on Alexander Road. Phone calls arebeing directed to the Norton-Oaks Agency at 6 Becker Farm Road,Roseland.Top Of PageManagement MovesNicholas C. Maida CPA Chartered, 379Princeton-HightstownRoad, Cranbury 08512. Joseph C. Maida, president. 609-443-4409; fax,609-443-5796. E-mail: wvhw76a@prodigy.com.Harttraft & Associates PA, 379 Princeton-WindsorOffice Park, Building 1, Cranbury 08512. 609-443-4409; fax,609-443-5796.James Harttraft Jr. CPA died in October. His business has beenpurchasedby Nicholas C. Maida, CPA Chartered. Location, phone, and fax remainthe same and clients have been referred.Top Of PageBasketball News: Caliper’s TurnThe Continental Basketball Association has approvedthe entry of a Trenton squad in the expanding 10-team league, pendingcommunity support. The team’s organization is currently headed byCaliper Sports & Associates, a group of investors headed by HerbertM. Greenberg, CEO of Caliper, the psychological testing firm locatedat 751 Mount Lucas Road (https://www.caliper.txt).To win final approval, Greenberg and crew must sell at least 2,500season tickets and gain “a reasonable amount of corporate supportthrough the sale of advertising and box seats,” says a pressreleaseissued by Caliper.If this effort succeeds, the team will play in the planned MercerCounty Arena, the Trenton site that will be home also to the minorleague hockey team scheduled to begin playing in the fall.The other stockholders in Caliper Sports & Associates are HaroldWeinstein,Greenberg’s consulting partner; Steve Wills, a partner at Golomb,Wills & Company; Ben Shiriak, president of Maxim Sewerage Corporation;Bob Wenzel, former head coach at Rutgers and assistant coach for theNew Jersey Nets.Last year 50 CBA players were called up by NBA teams; NBA stars fromthe CBA include John Starks, Anthony Mason, and Matt Maloney. ForGreenberg and Caliper this could be the opportunity to put intopractice its own advice. Among Caliper’s many clients are severalpro teams seeking psychological profiles of prospective players.Caliperclaims it can often distinguish potential winners on the basis ofits tests (U.S. 1, October 29, 1997).Once the deal is sealed, there will be a community-wide effort topick the team’s name, says Greenberg.Caliper, 741 Mount Lucas Road, Box 2050, Princeton08543-2050. Herbert M. Greenberg Ph.D., CEO. 609-924-3800; fax,609-683-8560.E-mail: writeus@caliperonline.com. Home page:https://www.caliperonline.com.Top Of PageDeathsCarole E. Donald, 57, on February 5. She had beensupervisorof road service at AAA of Central New Jersey and had worked for StarrTours.Betty Lou Kennedy, 47, on February 10. She was managerat the Fashion Bug at Lawrence Shopping Center.Joyce A. Goshorn, 55, on February 10. She worked in theinternal auditing department at Dow Jones on Route 1 North.Corrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
