Prism Capital Partners’ vision of having the 116-acre ON3 campus serve as a walkable, mixed-used campus that meets the changing demands of New Jersey communities, residents and businesses took a critical step forward when it received zoning approval from the city of Clifton for limited retail uses.
About ON3
The state’s largest contemplated redevelopment, the ON3 campus currently is home to 1.45 million square feet of existing office and lab/research & development product occupied or soon-to-be-occupied by blue-chip organizations including Eisai Inc., Quest Diagnostics, Ralph Lauren Corp., Modern Meadow, Y-mAbs Therapeutics and Seton Hall University’s Graduate College of Nursing and School of Health and Medical Sciences.
Eisai’s full-building lease of ON3’s flagship 200 Metro Blvd. office tower was New Jersey’s largest office lease in 2020 and brought the built space on the property to 100% occupancy.
Prism Principal Partner Eugene Diaz said the approved redevelopment plan paves the way for uses like restaurants, small shops, a neighborhood market and other services aimed at supporting existing ON3 businesses, their employees and area residents.
“Clifton’s decision allows us to move forward with a redevelopment plan that provides critical, complementary uses to support the office, R&D and academic tenants at ON3,” he said.
“Redevelopment is supposed to assess market opportunities, and then plan and develop uses to enhance and revitalize an area. Clifton city officials continue to demonstrate that they understand this, and we applaud them for doing what is necessary to help attract best-in-class organizations and provide them with an unparalleled campus experience.”
It is the latest in a list of approvals.
Clifton also recently facilitated the introduction of a hospitality component at ON3 by granting final site plan approval for a 266-room dual-brand Marriott AC/Element Hotel. The seven-story structure, which will feature both limited-service and extended-stay options, will occupy a parcel near the main entrance at Route 3.
Additionally, late last year, Clifton approved a build-to-suit medical office building at ON3, to be developed at the southeast corner of Metro Boulevard and Route 3.
The 80,000-square-foot facility has been pre-leased to Hackensack Meridian Health, which already occupies academic and R&D space at the campus, including its School of Medicine and Center for Discovery and Innovation, an NIH-designated Clinical Research Center. The new medical office building will include an ambulatory surgical center as well as additional multispecialty practice areas.
The impact of ON3, which straddles both Clifton and Nutley, continues to grow.
In addition to the hundreds of construction jobs created by the ongoing redevelopment, Prism expects that more than 5,500 people will be employed on the former Hoffmann-La Roche campus by the end of 2021.