Home To 5,500 Jobs: ON3 Development In Nutley, Clifton Wins Award

NUTLEY, NJ — Prism Capital Partners has seen some stiff criticism from Nutley town officials about ON3, the 116-acre development project that replaced the former Hoffmann-La Roche campus. But last week, the firm announced that it scored a big win, when ON3 earned a top prize from the Urban Land Institute's Northern New Jersey chapter (ULI-NNJ) as part of the organization’s annual Excellence Awards Gala.

ON3, which is located on Route 3 near Clifton and Nutley, landed atop the “Suburban Redevelopment” category of the ULI-NNJ award list.

Prism Capital Partners – which relocated its headquarters to 310 Kingsland Street at ON3 last year – gave an update on the latest developments in a news release about the ULI-NNJ award.

Edwin Cohen, a principal partner at Prism, said that in its heyday, the Hoffmann-La Roche campus consisted of nearly four million square feet of general office, manufacturing and R&D facilities.

It also employed nearly 10,000 people, Cohen said. And its vacancy has affected housing values and profitability for many surrounding businesses that provided services to Hoffmann-La Roche employees.

“In short, it was a poster child for last-generation suburban campuses gone dark,” Cohen said.

But things have begun to turn around since ON3 launched, Prism says. According to the firm:

“Since Prism’s fall 2016 acquisition of the site, sustained activity has rebuilt the campus’ tenant population, attracting high-profile companies across a range of sectors. This includes a mix of pharmaceutical (Eisai Inc.), research and development (Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery and Innovation), medical education (Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, and Seton Hall University’s Graduate College of Nursing and School of Health and Medical Sciences), diagnostics (Quest Diagnostics), biotechnology (Modern Meadow), biopharma (Y-Mabs Therapeutics) and corporate (Ralph Lauren Corporation).”

“Today, this group of diverse businesses and institutions employs more than 5,500 people at ON3,” said Eugene Diaz, another principal partner at Prism.

“We are incredibly proud to have brought life back to this important site with an award-winning redevelopment,” Diaz added.

According to Prism, other recent construction at the site includes:

PARKING STRUCTURES – “To support the current and future development at ON3, Prism has completed construction of two parking structures on the campus. A 2,500-space structure serves both 200 Metro Boulevard and 100 Metro Boulevard (home to The Ralph Lauren Corporation). Additionally, the firm completed the construction of a second, 1,183-space parking garage to serve Hackensack Meridian Health employees and students. At 200 Metro, Prism completed extensive façade upgrades and additional renovations, as well as an inviting courtyard located between 200 and 100 Metro Boulevard with communal areas for future social and business gatherings.”

INFRASTRUCTURE – “Prism additionally has completed a more than $35 million campus infrastructure improvement program (including roadways, parking and utilities upgrades) to support this population and future development. Prism added and rebranded streets on the east portion of the campus, installed new sewer and storm water systems to be compliant with the latest NJDEP Stormwater regulations, and orchestrated electrical grid enhancements to further the green mission of the in-place Co-Hybrid campus infrastructure. On the west side, Prism has incorporated a robust roadway network – allocating and integrating development sites, and enabling the campus to be easily and fully traversed.”

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