It's electric: Panasonic office tower finally starts to rise in Newark
Published: Tuesday, May 15, 2012, 7:00 AM Updated: Tuesday, May 15, 2012, 7:10 AM
By Sarah Portlock / The Star-Ledger
EnlargeTools hang from a belt of a ironworker from Local 11. Newark, NJ Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger
NEWARK — Construction on the Panasonic office tower in downtown Newark has begun, one year after the Japanese electronics giant signed a lease to move to the city and nearly two decades after a foundation was built for a development that never happened at the site.
Panasonic plans to
relocate its North American headquarters from Secaucus into the 12-story, $200 million tower at the busy intersection of Raymond Boulevard and McCarter Highway next summer. The company will occupy 10 stories of the 338,000-square-foot building, and bring with it 800 employees, said spokesman Jim Reilly. Construction is expected to create 600 jobs.
Panasonic employees are excited about the building, and have been following the work so far through photos sent from Newark-based friends and business associates, Reilly said.
"Employees have been hearing about the move since April 2011 when we first announced it, so the feeling is now, ‘Cool. It’s finally really happening,’" Reilly said.
Yesterday morning, five truckloads of steel arrived at the site, and workers assembled the girders that will make up the building’s skeleton. About a dozen pieces of steel — the typical floor frames weigh about 1,700 pounds — were erected starting just after 1 p.m., said Andrew Cristi, an assistant project manager with Skanska USA Building.
There are already footings and a foundation at the site, which will be known as Two Riverfront Center and sits one block from Penn Station and adjacent to the Legal Center at One Riverfront Center. With suitable conditions, erecting the steel will take approximately four months, which is followed by installing a ribbed sheetmetal to span the gap from floor beam to floor beam, laying steel reinforcement and pouring concrete for the floor slabs, Cristi said.
Last April, Panasonic signed a 15-year lease with the site’s owners, Matrix Development Group, based in Cranbury, and SJP Properties of Parsippany. The goal is to move in no later than August 2013, a timeframe that takes into account possible delays, Reilly said.
But Panasonic’s decision to choose Newark did not happen overnight.
View full sizeRobert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger
With the arrival of the first shipment of steel girders, ironworkers from Local 11 begin the construction of the new Panasonic office tower in downtown Newark at the intersection of McCarter Highway and Raymond Boulevard. This photograph was taken from the top of One Newark Center's Newark Club.
In February 2011, the state Economic Development Authority approved an Urban Transit Hub tax credit worth $102.4 million over 10 years for Panasonic if it brings at least 250 jobs to the site, creates at least 200 new jobs and locates the building within a half-mile of a public transportation center.
At the time, Panasonic was weighing other sites throughout the country and its chief executive officer, Joseph Taylor, had said Newark was not the most attractive location financially. He said he changed his mind after considering the city’s burgeoning development scene, its surrounding cultural venues and the environmental benefits of the new tower and its proximity to public transportation.The company is in the midst of working to become more "green" by its 100th anniversary in 2018.
Panasonic plans to incorporate many of its own technologies into the building, including solar power and energy management, Reilly said. There will also be an interactive technology center and showroom in the lobby to highlight Panasonic’s innovations.
The site itself has sat dormant for years, with plans for other buildings faltering dating back to the 1990s. Real estate players in Newark praised the new tower and what it means for Newark.
Frank Giantomasi, an attorney with Genova Burns Giantomasi & Webster who handled the project’s site plans, said he came into Newark on Sunday just to see the crane at work without weekday traffic.
"That crane is symbolic of development," Giantomasi said. "(The project) is an ignition switch for Newark, and for regional development generally."
Matrix acquired the land in 2003 for $5 million, giving it control of nearly 10 waterfront acres it had steadily amassed since 2001 for a mixed-used project that would also include residential and retail projects.
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Originally Posted by alex@newark
It's electric: Panasonic office tower finally starts to rise in Newark
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