Venture Capital Firm Is Latest Tenant At The New Brunswick HELIX

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — The latest tenant at the HELIX, the planned tech/science/pharma hub currently under construction in New Brunswick, was just announced this week.

Portal Innovations, a venture capital firm that invests in the life sciences, will rent space at the HELIX.

The HELIX, which stands for the Health & Life Science Exchange, is being built on a five-acre lot directly across from the New Brunswick train station. When it opens, it will house research labs from Rutgers, Hackensack Meridian, RWJBarnabas, Nokia Bell Labs and others. The first building in the complex is scheduled to open in spring 2026.

Portal will join these other institutions that are already confirmed to move into the HELIX:

• Rutgers University
• Hackensack Meridian Health
• Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health
• Nokia Bell Labs, which plans to leave their current headquarters in Berkeley Heights in Union County and relocate to the HELIX in 2028. Nokia will relocate approximately 1,000 employees to New Brunswick, and make it their new global headquarters for research & development. Nokia says it is currently working on cutting-edge research in 6G, AI and industrial automation.

• Tel Aviv University in Israel: Tel Aviv University previously announced they plan to open a satellite campus at the HELIX and rent research space there.

Gov. Phil Murphy, a big HELIX backer, has always said Princeton University and NJIT should rent space there, and collaborate with Rutgers and others on research. However, neither Princeton nor NJIT has confirmed they will move in.

"NJIT has not made any agreement that they will rent space at the Helix and we are in talks with Princeton," said a New Brunswick Development Corporation (DEVCO) spokeswoman May 19.

DEVCO is overseeing HELIX construction and its eventual opening.

Murphy also previously said the door is "wide open" for New Jersey pharmaceutical companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Novo Nordisk (the maker of Ozempic), Merck and others to rent space at the HELIX.

Think of it as New Jersey's answer to Silicon Valley: Murphy envisions the HELIX as a place where a new form of AI is created, where a new vaccine or smartphone is invented, or where a cure for cancer is found.

"Think about all Rutgers does. Think about all Princeton does," the governor mused previously. (They) will be able to walk down a hall and collaborate with science and pharmaceutical researchers. This is where new businesses will be born and new jobs will be created."

Portal, which is headquartered in Chicago, will be located in HELIX building H-1 (the building is called the "innovation hub") and says it will provide capital and start-up costs to life science companies. Portal says it will "provide researchers access to fully equipped wet lab space, seed capital, strategic resources to early-stage life sciences companies and introductions to investors and pharma partners."

The HELIX will consist of three buildings: H-1, H-2 and H-3:

• H-1 will be the new home of Rutgers Medical School, plus the NJ Innovation Hub. The HUB will have co-working space and shared research labs, with the goal of being a launch pad for micro-tech and start-ups.
• H-2: Nokia plans to occupy the entire H-2 building. They are expected to move in in 2028.
• H-3 will be a 42-story apartment building. If it gets built, it will be the tallest building in Central Jersey.

DEVCO said they specially wanted to build the HELIX on Amtrak's/NJ Transit's Northeast Corridor rail line to access "the proximity of research universities and large metropolitan areas like D.C., Philadelphia, NYC and Boston. The area already has a deep talent pool of researchers."

Prior on the HELIX: Nokia Will Leave Union County, Relocate Headquarters To New Brunswick (Dec. 2023)

Tel Aviv University The Newest Tenant At Rutgers' Tech Hub (2021)

Rutgers, Princeton Come Together Under One Roof At NJ Tech Hub (2020)