Gilbane JV Unveils Plans for Largest South Jersey Office Tower

January 16, 2025

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The project is part of a $250 million transportation center redevelopment.

Rendering of the Beacon Building in Camden, N.J. — Developer Gilbane and NJ Transit Corp. are planning the development of the Beacon Building, a 500,000-square-foot, 25-story office tower in Camden, N.J. *Image courtesy of Camden County Improvement Authority*

Developer Gilbane and NJ Transit Corp. are planning to develop a 500,000-square-foot, 25-story office building in Camden, N.J. The project is part of the $250 million redevelopment of Camden’s Walter Rand Transportation Center, which has been underway since 2021.

The tower, which will be called the Beacon Building, would be partly occupied by Cooper University Health Care, which is undergoing a $3 billion expansion that will also include three new clinical towers. There is the possibility that the state of New Jersey will relocate civil courts to the Beacon Building.

The Beacon Building will have five floors measuring 27,000 square feet each and 20 more measuring 18,000 square feet, according to Camden County.

Other aspects of the Walter Rand redevelopment will include updates to the site’s transportation center, originally developed in 1989, as well as a new parking structure and a public square. The PATCO Speedline subway and the River Line light rail connect to the center, along with a number of bus lines. NJ Transit owns the site, and Gilbane is the master developer.

The developers have not announced how much the structure will cost, nor its source of financing. They do note that the building will be the tallest in southern New Jersey outside of Atlantic City. The space will service the growth of “eds and meds” in this part of suburban Philadelphia, the developers assert.

Class A office demand in South Jersey

The demand for medical office space is robust in southern New Jersey, with almost 200,000 square feet of space leased in 2024 by the end of the third quarter, according to Newmark, which predicts that demand will continue to grow in 2025 as employment in the sector grows. Overall office space occupancy edged up 0.2 percent quarter-over-quarter in the third quarter of 2024.

Class A office space has the advantage in leasing. As of the third quarter of 2024, Class A office vacancy in southern New Jersey came in at 13.2 percent, or 206 basis points lower than the overall office vacancy rate, noted Newmark, with an annual average of an 117-basis point delta since 2020. That compares with a gap of only 62 points (with Class A vacancy lower) in the years between 2016 and 2019.

Health-care employment is a prime driver of office space use in the region, Newmark reported, along with leisure and hospitality and government. Health-care employment in Greater Philadelphia grew 4.8 percent year-over-year as of the third quarter of 2024, the most of any sector.