New Brunswick, NJ - According to RIONJ, "When the HELIX, a 12-story, 573,400-square-foot building in New Brunswick that is committed to doing translational research in life science, received a $271 million tax credit to literally get the building off the ground in early February, state officials said the massive complex would be a game-changer for the state. At the time, New Brunswick Development Corp. President Chris Paladino, the master developer, said he hoped the transformative project will be finished by the fourth quarter of 2025."
Less than two weeks later, Onyx Equities announced it was partnering with a New York firm to buy the massive 108-acre Merck campus in Kenilworth — one already filled with 1.4 million square feet of state-of-the-art research facilities.
Its master developer, Onyx co-Managing Partner John Saraceno, said he intends to bring in the best and brightest life science companies at about the same time — or, after a two-year effort to develop some parcels on the site and redevelop some others.
Competition?
That’s not how Paladino sees it.
The aim of the HELIX, he said, is to build an innovation and research economy in the state. Paladino said the more places this can happen, the better.
“I think it’s extraordinarily complementary,” he said. “And, quite honestly, since the earliest phases of the HELIX project and the New Jersey Innovation Hub, this has been the desire: To have a place that can help create and accelerate the commercialization of research by startups and early-stage companies.
“If there are more places to do that — more places available when a company needs to expand to a 25,000- or a 100,000-square-foot space — that’s a good thing.
“What we’re trying to do is make New Jersey a driver of the country’s innovation economy. So, I think these places, and others like them, are very compatible.”
For more: https://www.roi-nj.com/2023/02/22/real_estate/n-j-life-sciences-building-back-better-massive-helix-merck-sites-aim-to-be-complementary/?utm_source=ROI-NJ+MAIN+Newsletter+List+%282%2F4%2F19%29&utm_campaign=11deffcc97-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_02_23_06_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-11deffcc97-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D
Its master developer, Onyx co-Managing Partner John Saraceno, said he intends to bring in the best and brightest life science companies at about the same time — or, after a two-year effort to develop some parcels on the site and redevelop some others.
Competition?
That’s not how Paladino sees it.
The aim of the HELIX, he said, is to build an innovation and research economy in the state. Paladino said the more places this can happen, the better.
“I think it’s extraordinarily complementary,” he said. “And, quite honestly, since the earliest phases of the HELIX project and the New Jersey Innovation Hub, this has been the desire: To have a place that can help create and accelerate the commercialization of research by startups and early-stage companies.
“If there are more places to do that — more places available when a company needs to expand to a 25,000- or a 100,000-square-foot space — that’s a good thing.
“What we’re trying to do is make New Jersey a driver of the country’s innovation economy. So, I think these places, and others like them, are very compatible.”
For more: https://www.roi-nj.com/2023/02/22/real_estate/n-j-life-sciences-building-back-better-massive-helix-merck-sites-aim-to-be-complementary/?utm_source=ROI-NJ+MAIN+Newsletter+List+%282%2F4%2F19%29&utm_campaign=11deffcc97-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_02_23_06_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-11deffcc97-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D
