WEST WINDSOR — With shovels loosening soil from the site of what will be NRG Energy's new headquarters come 2016, business executives and township officials on Thursday signaled the start of construction of the company's environmentally sustainable facility.
“None of us will have a full appreciation of this new building until it’s fully built and outfitted and occupied,” NRG CEO David Crane said Thursday afternoon in his remarks before the formal groundbreaking ceremony. “At that point, I think we will really recognize that it’s not just another suburban office spot, but rather a living and breathing organism that hopefully every day will inspire its inhabitants to accomplish great and important things.”
West Windsor's planning board in May granted real estate developer Boston Properties approval to construct a 130,000-square-foot building in Carnegie Center on Route 1 that NRG, a power generation and retail electricity business, will move into by the first quarter of 2016. NRG will lease the building from Boston Properties for 15 years.
The $40 million three-floor facility will incorporate a host of green technologies, including a “living wall” with plants to provide air purification, two on-site solar fields to power the building and a roof that captures 12,000 gallons of rainwater to be recycled for plumbing needs. NRG will only use power supplied by the public utility as a backup.
“This is really a new type of building for a new age,” Crane said.
Those features and more, including more than 30 electric vehicle charging stations, two upright wind power turbines and solar paneled parking canopies, will reduce electricity, water and fuel use, Crane said.
During the ceremony, Crane also identified a number of the company’s long-term goals as part of its commitment to renewable energy development. By 2030, NRG seeks to reduce its carbon dioxide footprint by 50 percent, and by 2050 by 90 percent, using 2014 as a baseline, Crane said.
“It’s the destiny of NRG to be a leader, in close collaboration with other companies similarly minded, to create a more sustainable and prosperous future while winning the fight against climate change and sparring future generations from its impacts,” he said.
Crane said the company has already reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent since 2005.
NRG currently operates out of two separate buildings totaling 90,000-square-feet in Carnegie Center on the northbound side of Route 1. NRG was awarded $37.5 million in tax incentives last year to move less than a mile across the highway to the new facility on the southbound side.
Over a 15-year period, officials said the town will reap about $600,000 in taxes annually from the company’s new headquarters. When the building is completed in the beginning of 2016, it will eventually house nearly 540 workers — 386 current and about 150 new employees.
Patti Helfer, NRG’s chief administrative officer, said over the past decade, the company has grown from a small, regional wholesale generator into a large-scale energy company “that is leading this nation toward a clean energy future.”
NRG merged with GenOn, a wholesale electricity company based in Houston in 2012, and has since maintained dual headquarters in Texas and West Windsor. The West Windsor location off Route 1 is currently near capacity, and the company was considering relocating to a larger facility in New Jersey or moving everything to Houston.
But the state Economic Development Authority stepped in last year and awarded the company the tax deal to stay in town and move from one Carnegie Center facility into another.
“The EDA was instrumental in our planning process and reinforced NRG’s decision to stay and grow in New Jersey,” Helfer said.
EDA CEO Michele Brown said NRG's decision to stay in the state resulted in the retention of hundreds of jobs and the creation of even more during the construction phase.
Nicole Mulvaney may be reached at nmulvaney@njtimes.com. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleMulvaney. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.