June 02, 2013
PLAINSBORO — Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical company and leader in diabetes care, has begun moving employees into its new headquarters on Scudders Mill Road.
More than 1,100 employees were expected to make the move from the company’s old offices at 100 College Road West, on the opposite side of Route 1, to its new home, a former Merrill Lynch facility built in 1985 and extensively rehabilitated over the last two years.
The $215 million adaptive reuse project incorporates such features as pleasant views from nearly every window, “huddle rooms’’ for those who need privacy, lactation stations for expectant mothers and Silver LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The builders used 95 percent of recycled material from the previous facility, real estate companies LCOR and Ivy Equities said in a press release.
The renovated building has 770,000 square feet of space, of which the company will initially be using about 500,000 square feet.
After company leaders decided not to move out of state, and were persuaded that gutting, building out and leasing the structure made financial sense, Novo Nordisk partnered with Ivy Equities, LCOR and Intercontinental Real Estate Corp., which provided the equity funding for the project.
The Northeast Council of Carpenters made a lead investment of $75 million and was joined by the New Jersey Laborers Statewide Pension Fund, the IUOE Local 825 Pension Fund and the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 5 Pension Fund, the press release said.
The project created some 500 jobs for construction and other workers, according to Novo Nordisk.
It also created one of the largest commercial real estate transactions in New Jersey and brought economic growth to the state, LCOR executive vice president Kurt Eichler said.
“This redevelopment project provided the opportunity for LCOR, Ivy and Intercontinental to help lead in the revitalization of New Jersey’s suburban office market and set a precedent for future redevelopment projects that will continue to promote overall economic growth in the state of New Jersey,” he said in the release.
The property includes a six-acre lake, large trees and a one-mile walking path on nearly 100 acres of wooded land.
“The adaptive reuse of this world class corporate campus has set a standard for how corporations can obtain modern office space in an economical and ecologically sensitive manner,” Anthony DiTommaso Jr., co-CEO of Ivy Equities, said in the release.
Contact Nicole Mulvaney at (609) 989-5723 or nmulvaney@njtimes.com.