SJP Properties to Seek LEED Rating for Metropark Corporate Center
Stephen Del Percio
I spent a few months a couple of years ago reviewing documents out at a client’s in Iselin, New Jersey. I’d take the train out from Penn Station to Metropark, a station serving a sprawling office park plunked down at the crossroads of New Jersey, which sits quite literally in between the intersection of the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike, about 45 minutes from Midtown and and Philadelphia on the Northeast Corridor. Parking garages are linked to the station (which is currently undergoing a $30 million dollar renovation) and low-rise corporate office buildings are easily accessible as well. Although there’s no residential component (or any real pedestrian access to speak of), I always thought of Metropark as a type of transit-oriented development; quick access to major roads with easy rail connections to the entire Northeast and Newark Airport.
Accordingly, it wasn’t all that surprising to me that SJP Properties (on the heels of the loss of potential 11 Times Square anchor tenant Natixis) announced yesterday that it will seek a LEED rating for a 300,000-square-foot, 10-story office building that it will develop across the street from the station along Middlesex-Essex Turnpike. Specific green features weren’t released, but SJP vice president Rocco Romeo said the Metropark Corporate Center “will be one of the finest office buildings ever built in Middlesex County, New Jersey. SJP Properties is committed to setting a new standard for delivering high performance, energy efficient and environmentally responsible developments that utilize sustainable and renewable energy resources.”
Firms that currently hold office space across the Metropark complex include Prudential, Ernst & Young, and Cisco. We’ll have more details on the SJP project as they become available.
