Future home of Bell Labs gets approval for construction

The project known as the ”HELIX innovation center” received approval from New Brunswick Planning Board last week to begin the second phase of construction on a massive 11-story research center that will be the new home of Nokia Bell Labs one day.

The New Jersey Health + Life Science Exchange, or HELIX, is a $750 million research complex that will consist of three buildings in the city’s downtown on the site of the former Ferren Mall. On April 8, the city Planning Board granted New Brunswick 2 Urban Renewal Associates preliminary and final site plan approval and major subdivision approval on the plan to build a towering 415,000-square-foot building that will be home to state-of-the art offices and research spaces.

The applicant New Brunswick 2 Urban Renewal Associates is a subsidiary of SJP Properties, which is heading development of the site with community support provided by nonprofit urban real estate development company New Brunswick Development Corporation, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and the city of New Brunswick.

Officials said the project and tenant Nokia Bell Labs will be a good fit for the city.

“I appreciate the historical and utilitarian context of this project, and the economic impact that it’s going to have on the city, as well as the social engagement that it’s going to bring to our community,” said Councilwoman Suzanne Sicora Ludwig before last week’s vote.

The board unanimously approved the project.

Nokia’s research arm, Nokia Bell Labs, announced in December it will leave its historic headquarters in Murray Hill over the next five years and relocate to the new tech hub.

Murray Hill, a section of Berkeley Heights and New Providence, has been the home of Bell Labs for more than 80 years. The sprawling Murray Hill campus on Mountain Avenue is described by former employees with the same fondness college graduates describe their alma maters.

Spread across 240 acres, the country club-like setting served as the headquarters for a historic company whose researchers helped earn 10 Nobel Prizes, five Turing Awards for computer science breakthroughs and more than 20,000 patents.

“When we decided to move, it wasn’t taken lightly,” said Matthew Corliss, director of strategy and technology for Nokia.

“We cast a wide net when we looked for a home. We looked at 25 places in New Jersey and beyond. And in New Brunswick we found a home that will meet not only the technology needs that we have for the facility, but also the environment here close to academia, a thriving venture environment, and so we want to be a part of that, we want to be plugged into that going forward,” Corliss said during the April 8 meeting.

The new facility, which will break ground in 2025, is the second in a series of three new buildings expected to change downtown New Brunswick, developers said.

Construction is already underway on the first HELIX building — a 12-story tower and plaza, housing the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, translational researchers, innovation spaces, and amenities.

“I don’t believe that it’s hyperbole to suggest the historic significance of this application and this project,” said Christopher Paladino, president of New Brunswick Development Corporation. “This project is an opportunity to unlock the entrepreneurial spirit of Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Dr. Waksman Rutgers, [David] Sarnoff, Claude Shannon from Bell Labs, for the next generation.”

The first two phases of the project are already creating thousands of construction jobs, Paladino said.

Developers said they plan to finish building the new Bell Labs headquarters by January 2028.

Bell Labs intends to open a technology showcase in the building’s lobby for the public to view past innovations, “but also see what we’re working on towards the future,” said Corliss, director of strategy and technology for Nokia.

Bell Labs began in 1925 as the Bell Telephone Laboratories, a science and communication research arm of the Bell system with ownership evenly split between AT&T and Western Electric.

At its height, Bell Labs was filled with scientists doing groundbreaking research in Holmdel, Murray Hill and other locations. But the company eventually went through numerous ownership changes.

In the 1980s, AT&T Technologies took over, according to the Nokia Bell Labs website. In 1996, AT&T spun off most of Bell Laboratories and its equipment manufacturing business into Lucent Technologies.

Following a merger in 2007, Bell Laboratories and the former research and innovations division of Alcatel were combined into a single organization. And in 2016, Nokia acquired Alctael-Lucent, merging Bell Labs and Nokia’s research arm.

The third phase of the HELIX project will involve development of a mixed-use, high-rise building, incorporating additional office space and 220 housing units, according to the developers. That development is expected to go before the city planning board by the end of the year.

The HELIX was the first project to get a tax credit from the board of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority through the Aspire program. Created under the New Jersey Economic Recovery Act of 2020, Aspire is a gap financing program meant to support commercial, industrial, mixed-use, and residential real estate development projects, with an emphasis on underserved communities.

The HELIX project was given a $271 million tax credit through the Aspire program.

The HELIX innovation project also involves a payment in lieu of taxes agreement, or PILOT. The city approved an agreement last year with NJ Innovation Associates Urban Renewal, a subsidiary of New Brunswick Development Corporation.

Under the terms of the agreement, the New Brunswick Development Company is paying $1.4 million to the city annually in addition to the $23 million it is paying for the property, according to public meeting documents and videos.

Last year, the Rutgers Board of Governors approved its own funding plan for Rutgers’ $567 million portion of the HELIX project.

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Jackie Roman may be reached at jroman@njadvancemedia.com.