Global biotech firm PTC Therapeutic's large lease for headquarters and lab space in a repositioned office park in North Jersey is a textbook case of how legacy properties can be reimagined, becoming relevant and successful. The cutting-edge company opted to stay in the Garden State and relocate its headquarters and consolidate some operations at the Warren Corporate Center in Warren, New Jersey.
The 361,718-square-foot, long-term lease, is a win for Gov. Phil Murphy's quest to foster what he calls an innovation economy in the Garden State, which was one of the reasons the deal earned a 2023 CoStar Impact Award, as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market. New Jersey has been burdened with large one-tenant office parks marooned in the suburbs. The lease signed by PTC, a leading rare disease biotech company, was proof that older office properties could be revitalized.
The owners of the Warren complex, Vision Real Estate Partners and Rubenstein Partners, transitioned that campus, where Citibank was once the sole tenant, into a multitenant office center. The landlords saw that growing industries such as life science need a place where employees can collaborate in offices, lab and research facilities.
About the project: The two, four-story properties where PTC is leasing space, 400 and 500 Warren Corporate Center Drive, are part of a five-building office campus that was built in 1996 for Lucent Technologies. It was later fully leased, its entire 820,236 square feet, by Citibank. Vision and Rubenstein acquired the office park in 2016 for $136 million from Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.
What the judges said: The lease demonstrated that an isolated suburban office property could transition and attract a high-tech company, according to one judge, with the landlords shifting and adjusting to the market.
They made it happen: The landlord was represented in-house by Ryan McCarthy, leasing manager for Vision Real Estate Partners, and by a Cushman & Wakefield team that included Executive Managing Director Robert Donnelly, Jr., Executive Vice Chair Robert Donnelly, Sr., Executive Managing Director Paul Giannone and Managing Directors Todd Elfand and Kevin Carton.
PTC was represented by Louis Kluger, senior vice president and Jeffrey Zell, president of JM Zell Partners.