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Published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on Wednesday, August 9. All rights
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Life in the Fast Lane: Merial Leaving
Merial is leaving the state and taking 300 jobs to
Georgia. Merial’s other option would have been to uproot 560 workers
and a passel of chickens and turkeys in a move from Georgia to New
Jersey. The turkeys won, so a prime tenant is leaving the New Jersey
Technology Center in North Brunswick.
Fifty-five Merial workers will leave 60,000 square feet at the New
Jersey Technology Center on Route 1 South by the second quarter of
2002 and move into a building now under construction in Atlanta.
Merial
will, nevertheless, pay on the remaining six years of its 10-year
lease with the Tech Center’s owner, the New Jersey Economic
Development
Authority (EDA), says spokesperson Janice Keene.
“We alerted the New Jersey Economic Development Authority a number
of weeks ago,” says Keene. “The state had put together a
proposal
and we appreciate their efforts in that regard, and we will certainly
honor the lease and will continue to work with them.”
Merial will also move 250 people from Iselin, and this exodus is just
the sort of move that the EDA was trying to prevent in 1998 when it
leased the space at the Technology Center, part of a 50-acre research
park on Route 1 South in North Brunswick, practically adjacent to
Rutgers’ Cook Campus (www.njeda.com).
At these labs Merial focused on new and existing products for
companion
animals (such as dogs, cats, and horses) as well as for livestock
(such as swine and cattle). Merial is the result of Merck and
Rhone-Poulenc
combining their animal-health businesses in 1998. It is the world’s
largest animal-health company solely dedicated to the discovery,
manufacture,
marketing, and delivery of veterinary pharmaceuticals and vaccines,
and it also leads the market in developing and producing poultry
breeding
stock (www.merial.com).
Merial has 560 people in Gainesville and Athens,
Georgia.
“Merial was formed through a merger just about three years ago.
Until this time we were operating out of nine locations in the U.S.,
two in Georgia, two in New Jersey, one in St. Louis, and small farms
in Missouri, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and North Carolina,”
says Keene. “We were focusing all of our energies on making the
merger successful, but now for us to be competitive we need to
consolidate
all our locations in closer proximity. We are also in the midst of
going through a global reorganization.” Even 110 workers from
St. Louis are going to Georgia.
When Merial offered to base its North American headquarters —
as well as part of its global operations — at the first new
building
at the Tech Center, the EDA jumped at the offer, saying that the Tech
Center’s vision has always been to provide a place for major companies
to expand, to be a home for growing businesses, and to foster synergy
between high tech companies and the state’s universities.
Assorted small firms had expressed interest in taking footage
equivalent
to half the first new building. Had the small companies leased this
space, EDA would have helped with the build out. Merial received no
such help and paid $12 to $15 million for its own buildout, according
to one source. “Once we signed the lease, we leased the core and
shell and the surrounding property,” says Keene.
Where this exodus leaves the New Jersey Tech Center: the EDA has built
and leased a second 60,000 building and is preparing to break ground
on an 80,000 square foot third building this year. Funds for
one-fourth
of that space have been designated for a “commercialization
center”
that will offer up to 6,000 feet, suitable for companies that may
have grown out of an incubator, but are still too small for the usual
space.
Merial Limited, 681 Route 1 South, TechnologyCenterof New Jersey, North Brunswick 08902. John Chintall, laboratoryoperationsmanager. 732-729-5700; fax, 732-729-5015.Top Of PageIPG Direct to PennsylvaniaInternet Publishing Direct is moving the week of August7 from the Straube Center to an office park in Newtown, partly toget less expensive space, partly to access the Philadelphia labormarket, but also to access investment from a fund that focuses onthe geographical area of Pennsylvania. From 1,500 square feet inPennington,the 20-person provider of specialized market news and analysis forB-to-B websites will expand to 6,000 feet at 170 Pheasant Run, Suite200, Newtown PA 18940; 215-504-4288 (www.ipgdirect.com).IPG Direct has just announced $5 million in equity financing. Of that,$3 million is from Pennsylvania Early Stage Partners, a SafeguardScientifics-affiliated private equity fund that focuses on start-upand early stage investment opportunities primarily in Pennsylvania(www.paearlystage.com).”Early Stage makes a lot of investments in the state ofPennsylvaniaand the state does provides a lot of incentives to companies movinginto the area,” says Craig O. Allsopp, IPG’s CEO. He is workingwith the state on just what incentives would apply.Allsopp points out that 6,000-foot spaces are scarce and more costlyin the Princeton area, and the move also helps him straddle the labormarket. “It does put us in the Philadelphia market and still keepsus in the Princeton labor market.” A staff member at IPG Directlocated the new space.”What it means is we get to ramp up real fast, to go deeper insome of the markets we were already in, to expand our marketing andsales, and to take a look at going into new markets,” saysAllsopp.The source of the funds is also significant, he feels. “Safeguardhas a couple of hundred investments, and we may end up doing businesswith companies in the Safeguard family. There is some synergy in beinga network with partner companies.””This company integrates well with several of the PA Early Stageand Safeguard investments,” says Dean E. Miller, principal ofPA Early Stage (NYSE: SFE). “Content is king and IPG solves thecontent issue for a broad array of destination websites.”Top Of PageDeathsRev. John Henry Ford, 86, on July 26. He worked at South’sGarage more than 40 years and was pastor of Mount Zion AME Churchin Skillman.Johnnie Lee Miller Jr., 58, on July 27. He worked in thecarpentry department at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.Linda M. Peach, 49, on July 27. She was a manager in theworkers compensation division of Alta Services on Quakerbridge Road.Wolfgang “Walter” Asmus, 56, on July 28. He ownedCarroll-James International, a marketing consulting business inHopewell.Steven Gross, 53, on July 29. He was CEO and founder ofDevCom in Kingston. The son of an award-winning biochemist who diedat age 44 during a heart transplant operation, Gross holds six patentson diagnostic gadgets that are used by drug companies as marketingtools. A graduate of St. Peter’s College, Class of 1969, he foundedhis medical marketing, communications, and device company in 1982in Pennsylvania. In 1993 he moved to the Carnegie Center and thento his own two-building property, which he redesigned, on Main Streetin Kingston.An accomplished player of seven musical instruments, Gross had amuseum-worthycollection of instruments, played with the various orchestras andensembles, was vice president of the Music Club of Princeton, andsupported the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the FAME festivalat Lawrenceville School. Memorial contributions may be made to NJSO,2 Central Avenue, Newark 07012 or FAME, 29 Greensprings Drive,Lakewood08701.Jacqueline “Jackie” Ross, 59, on August 1. Shewas a TOEFL program director at ETS.Kenan M. Van Vranken, 62, on August 3. She was directorof training services at Dow Jones.Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
