BioTech gives life to central NJ office market

After a brief recession-related hiccup, a highly coveted life science cluster is continuing to grow in central New Jersey, according to the New York Times.

While proximity to major research universities helped build the established biotechnology clusters in Boston and Durham, N.C., central Jersey’s access to major transportation and distribution systems — Route 1, the New Jersey Turnpike and Route 130 — have given birth to biotech in the Garden State. The industry is highly coveted by many municipalities, including New York City, for the stable, high-paying jobs it provides.

Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Bristol-Meyers Squibb and ImClone Systems already occupy some of the area’s 6.5 million square feet of lab space (about 5 percent of total office space) and 2.5 million square feet of research and development space. Excepting the six-building, 311,000-square-foot Technology Centre of New Jersey in New Brunswick, all of the development has been done privately.

Now much more development is underway.

For example, In East Windsor, developer Woodmont Properties is erecting SciPark, a planned four building complex of approximately a quarter-million square feet, where the first structure will open in March for chemical company Elementis P.L.C. Moreover, Princeton is conducting a $215 million redevelopment of a 770,000-square-foot building in its Princeton Forrestal Center. [NYT]