Newark Lands First Spec Office in 30 Years

By Gail Kalinoski

Ironside Newark

A downtown Newark, N.J., warehouse is being transformed into a $75 million, 465,000-square-foot mixed-use project by Edison Properties that will feature six floors of loft-style and penthouse offices along with two floors of retail and restaurant space.

Ironside Newark, which will front on the newly announced Mulberry Commons Park, will have a rooftop space that will offer views of Newark and Manhattan. Construction on the building is expected to last about 18 months and opening is scheduled for Fall 2018. It will offer the first speculative office space in Newark in at least 30 years, according to Bloomberg.

Businesses at Ironside Newark will be able to access affordable high-speed Internet service from a fiber optic network that runs beneath the city’s streets, making it attractive to creative and technology companies. The developer is pursuing a Wired Certified Platinum designation from WiredScore that would reflect superior connectivity and infrastructure.

“Ironside Newark represents a truly unique opportunity in today’s market – a state-of-the-art office and retail destination with built-in access to some of the country’s fastest Internet, set in a vibrant downtown just steps from the region’s leading transportation network,” Michael Sommer, executive vice president of development at Newark-based Edison Properties, said in prepared remarks.

Perkins Eastman, a renowned New York City-based design and architecture firm, has designed the building. The NGKF team of Timothy Greiner, Frank Recine, Jamie Ragucci, Harrison Russell and Andrew Sachs are the exclusive leasing agents for the office space. Marta Person Villa of JLL has been named the exclusive leasing agent for the retail space. Hollister Construction is the construction manager.

Ironside Newark is part of several recent multi-million commercial real estate investments in the city that include the planned $100 million Mulberry Commons project that will also feature residences and retail along with a park and a bridge connecting the city’s Ironbound section to downtown and the Prudential Center, an indoor arena. In January, Hahne & Co., an historic department store in downtown Newark, N.J. that had fallen into disrepair was unveiled as an arts and cultural center with retail and housing. The two-year, 400,000-square-foot restoration project cost about $174 million and was financed by a partnership of public, profit and private groups.

“Mulberry Commons will serve as a catalyst for Newark’s continued transformation into a dynamic, walkable community, and Ironside Newark is an important component of activating this critical section of our downtown,” Mayor Ras Baraka said in a prepared statement. “By attracting 21^st century jobs and businesses to the area, Ironside Newark and Edison Properties are helping push Newark forward on its path to becoming a 24/7 city.”

Edison has been located in Newark for more than 60 years and now owns over 3 million square feet of properties in Manhattan, including the 625,000-square-foot Class A Hippodrome office building in Midtown. The company also constructed and manages The Ludlow, a 243-unit, 23-story apartment building in lower Manhattan and owns several million square feet of land in New York, New Jersey and Maryland.