Sweetgreen Joins M Station In Morristown As First Retail Tenant

MORRISTOWN, NJ — M Station, the office, retail, and promenade project that will be constructed to replace the Midtown Shopping Center strip mall, has announced the signing of its first retail tenant.

Sweetgreen, the mission-driven restaurant brand that serves healthy food on a large scale, has signed a 2,646-square-foot lease at M Station East, the first of two office and retail buildings that comprise M Station, the mixed-use development credited with revitalizing Downtown Morristown.

"Sweetgreen’s arrival at M Station validates our hypothesis that nationally recognized brands will be attracted to the significant increase in daytime foot traffic and activity in the area generated by exceptional companies like Deloitte and Sanofi," said Alexander Erdos, SVP of Leasing & Marketing at SJP Properties. "This is a milestone for Morristown."

Recently, Sanofi, a French healthcare company with 1,900 New Jersey employees, broke ground on its new flagship location on Wednesday, bringing yet another company to Morristown's M Station.

Sanofi announced in March that it would relocate its New Jersey headquarters from Bridgewater to the M Station West building, along with all of its employees in the state.

Sanofi plans to move into the space in about 18 months, with the transition taking place in two stages: the first in the fourth quarter of 2024 and the second in the first quarter of 2025, according to officials.

The new structure will complete the M Station project in Morristown. The multi-phase project, developed by SJP Properties in collaboration with Scotto Properties first broke ground in November 2020.

M Station East, the project's first phase, is six stories tall and 120,000 square feet in size. M Station East was completed in July 2022, approximately one and a half years after SJP broke ground.

Deloitte has fully leased the property and will relocate approximately 1,495 employees to its new corporate headquarters in Q3 2022.

M Station's two buildings will be connected by a 1,000-car parking structure that will include public parking for the development's on-site retail and will be built in two phases to achieve LEED certification.

The two buildings are set back 45 feet from Morris Street to create a landscaped promenade and two public plazas with seating, improving the area's walkability, particularly between the nearby train station and The Morristown Green.

SJP and Scotto also broke ground last year on a new 120,000-square-foot office and retail building along Speedwell Avenue that will house Valley Bank's new headquarters.

The structure is scheduled to be finished in mid-2023.

M Station is regarded as Morristown's most significant commercial development in more than 30 years, and town officials have previously stated that the project will generate approximately $1 million in annual tax revenue.

Sweetgreen's menu features customizable warm bowls, salads and sides as healthy fast-food options. The fast-casual salad restaurant is popular among New Yorkers, and it has over 50 locations in the city. The majority of the locations are dispersed throughout Manhattan.

"Bringing high-caliber dining options and amenity retail to our projects is a key element of success. We think everyone at M Station, as well as residents of Morristown, will be thrilled to have Sweetgreen as a part of its rapidly evolving retail ecosystem,” Erdos said.