Life Science Construction:
Building a Healthy
New Jersey
By Ilene Dorf Manahan, Contributing Writer
C
orporate restructurings,
competition from generics,
combined with national
economic pressures have resulted
in the loss of a few hundred
pharmaceutical jobs in New Jersey
over the past year. But recent
studies project – and corporate
capital investments affirm – that
the life sciences sector, including
“big pharma” and biotech firms,
20
November, 2008
will continue to grow and retain
its position as one of the state’s
leading industries and economic
generators.
The State Bioscience Initiative
2008 study, a state-by-state analysis by Battelle and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)
released earlier this year, reported
New Jersey’s bioscience industry
sector (drugs and pharmaceuticals;
medical devices, equipment and
research; testing and medical laboratories; and agricultural feedstock
and chemicals) has experienced
significant employment growth.
Today life sciences support some
300,000 jobs in New Jersey.
Results of BioNJ’s 2008 Biotechnology Industry Survey concurred,
reporting the number of biotech
companies in the state increased
from 226 in 2006 to 238 in 2008,
despite the trend toward mergers
and acquisitions. Perhaps most
telling for the industry’s future
in the state is that 86 percent of
the surveyed companies expect
to hire, on average, an additional
20 employees over the next 12
months.
“We believe this growth will
continue, but we still need to
concentrate on what has brought
us here while finding new strategies to improve our efforts,” states
Debbie Hart, president of BioNJ.
These strategies must include
addressing a major problem Hart
indicates the BioNJ study revealed:
helping even the most promising
companies raise early-stage funding.
“When asked why companies
locate and remain in New Jersey,
respondents repeatedly mention
the availability of the scientific
talent needed to commercialize
and manage current research and
development projects, the opportunity for strategic collaborations
with academic institutions and
other industry laboratories within
the state, while state government
engenders an environment that
supports and promotes the industry,” states Angie McGuire, acting
chief of Governor Corzine’s Office
of Economic Growth. Results of
a Princeton University migration
study released in October confirmed that people moving into
New Jersey are generally those
who are better educated – not
only college graduates but those
holding PhDs. Many life sciences
firms are growing and increasing
employment in New Jersey as a
result of grants and tax incentives
the state awards for the creation
and retention of jobs here.
What big pharma and biotech
firms don’t typically mention is
that New Jersey is home to leading construction and construction
management firms that have recognized and adopted the life sciences sector as a primary market.
They specialize, and therefore are
retained to oversee and construct
or fit-out major new complexes or
to execute lab and facility renovations. In addition to their technical
expertise, contractors recognize
that life sciences firms are demanding clients who expect their
contractors to be as attentive to
their individual office, manufacturing and lab needs, are as knowledgeable about current Good
Laboratory Practices and Good
Manufacturing Practices (cGLP
and cGMP), and are as safety and
environmentally conscious as are
their internal staffs. Sensitive to
these high expectations, contractors also strive to meet the singular
needs of each individual company.
Growing Companies
Among the growing biotechnology firms, reports New Jersey
Economic Development Authority
(NJEDA) CEO Caren Franzini, are
Amicus Therapeutics, Cranbury,
which focuses on treating a range
of human genetic diseases by developing oral therapies that bind
to and stabilize crucial proteins,
and Chromocell, North Brunswick, a drug discovery company
with expertise in molecular and
cell biology. Both are graduates of
the NJEDA’s Commercialization
Center for Innovative Technologies
(CCIT), the business incubator and
part of the larger Technology Centre of New Jersey (TCNJ) on Route
1 in North Brunswick.
Amicus Therapeutics began as
a seven-person startup venture in
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Amicus Therapeutics’ headquarters in Cranbury. The company began as a seven-person startup venture in 2002.
With more than 100 employees today, it plans on hiring additional employees through the remainder of 2008 and
into 2009.
2002. With more than 100 employees today, Amicus plans on hiring
additional employees through the
remainder of 2008 and into 2009.
To build out its specialty labs at
the Cedar Brook Corporate Center,
where it is now located, Amicus
hired contractors with life sciences
expertise.
By the end of the year, Chromocell will move into 15,000-squarefeet of generic lab and office
space at the EDA’s Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED®)-registered, recently
renovated Tech IV Biotechnology
Development Center on the TCNJ
campus. Minor changes are being
made to accommodate Chromocell’s specific needs.
The state retained Torcon,
Inc. (Red Bank, Philadelphia and
Puerto Rico) as contract manager
for the Chromocell work. According to Jessica Langer, PhD, Chromocell assistant principal scientist-flow cytometry, Chromocell
felt comfortable that Torcon had
expertise in the special HVAC it required and understood the safety
T&M Associates, Middletown, a civil engineering and design consulting firm, is involved in two life sciences
campus master planning projects in northern and central Jersey. Pictured here is Pfizer’s Morris Plains campus, a
project on which T&M Associates worked.
22
November, 2008
concerns specific to Chromocell’s
scientific research.
Since acquiring its Cherry Hill
facility on Esterbrook Lane from
Wyeth in late 2002, Baxter Healthcare Corporation has invested
approximately $75 million in the
complex, renovating and upgrading existing space and installing
new technologies to continually
improve manufacturing operations
at the 330,000-square-foot facility
which produces injectable, smallvolume drugs.
Earlier this year, Swiss-based
Octapharma, whose core business
is the development, production
and sale of high quality plasma
derivatives, relocated its U.S.
headquarters from Virginia to
15,204 square feet of office space in
the Waterfront Corporate Center in
Hoboken, becoming the city’s first
life sciences company.
“There is no better location for
Octapharma’s U.S. headquarters
than at the Waterfront Corporate
Center,” states Octapharma USA
President Flemming Nielsen. “We
see our staffing needs tripling over
the next year and this building
gives us the room to expand. The
New York and New Jersey area
also provides the talent pool we
need to remain at the forefront
of our industry.” The company
expects to create some 25 new,
high-paying jobs.
To support its rapidly growing
global business, Summit-based
Celgene Corp. has grown to a
workforce population of about
1,000 in New Jersey. Some of the
new employees resulted from
Celgene’s acquisition of Pharmion
Corp., one of the largest biotech
M&As announced in 2007. While
most of the Pharmion employees
remain at their original locations,
Celgene has expanded to four locations in New Jersey: the Summit
site, a new location in Liberty Corner (Basking Ridge), Warren and
Cedar Knolls. To carry out some
minor renovations and the con-
struction of additional lab space at
the sites, Celgene hires contractors
who are acutely sensitive to the
company’s environmental requirements.
Known for its diabetes research,
Novo Nordisk has expanded its
U.S. headquarters in Princeton,
where employment has increased
by about 150 percent over the
past five years. The company has
planned for future growth by moving across Route 1 to a $20-million
facility at the Princeton Corporate
Campus that can accommodate
400 additional employees.
Novo Nordisk President
Jerzy Gruhn repeatedly cites New
Jersey’s “vibrant biotechnology
and life science industries” and
educated workforce as significant
factors in the company’s decision
to locate in the state.
“We consider the state of New
Jersey a partner in our success
and growth,” Gruhn says. “The
state’s commitment to economic
Octapharma relocated its U.S. headquarters from Virginia to 15,204 square feet of office space in the Waterfront
Corporate Center in Hoboken (pictured), becoming the city’s first life sciences company.
industries were deciding factors
in our expansion decision.” This
expansion retained 300 jobs in the
state and created 211 new jobs, as
development, its strategic location, highly educated workforce
and reputation as a leader in the
pharmaceutical and life science
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Roche Molecular Systems occupies a 70,000 square-foot building built by Murray Construction at 2 Millennium Way, Branchburg.
well as construction jobs.
When Bayer Pharmaceuticals
relocated its headquarters from
West New Haven, Connecticut
to Wayne, where it made a $35
million investment, New Jersey
retained a total of 775 jobs from
Berlex. With other major facilities in Montville and Morristown,
Bayer expects to create over 900
new jobs in the state.
Lauding New Jersey as the
best U.S. site for his company,
Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals President Reinhard Franzen
states, “New Jersey is one of the
most important centers for the
U.S. pharmaceutical industry and
offers access to a highly-skilled
workforce and close proximity to
future business partners.”
The site expansion at Novartis
Pharmaceuticals’ 200-acre North
American headquarters on Route
10 in E. Hanover, which has retained and added hundreds of jobs
in New Jersey, was made possible
in part through the award of state
grants and tax incentives.
“We greatly appreciate the
support from the state with this
important project,” says Kevin
Rigby, Novartis vice president of
public affairs.
“The construction of our new
state-of-the-art buildings speaks to
our commitment to the future of
the East Hanover site and the State
of New Jersey.”
The expansion included the
construction of two new five-story
buildings that provide a stateof-the-art work environment for
some 900 employees, many of
whom came from leased facilities
at off-site locations throughout the
state.
“We’re seeing an increased
desire among life sciences firms to
go green,” observes Gary Dahms,
PE, senior vice president of T&M
Associates, a civil engineering and
design consulting firm headquartered in Middletown, with three
regional offices in New Jersey and
offices in Pennsylvania and Puerto
Rico. T&M currently is involved
in two life sciences campus master
planning projects in northern and
central Jersey and a sustainable
energy project that will use solar
energy.
Responsive Contractors
Aaron Fichtner, PhD, director of
research and evaluation for the
Heldrich Center for Workforce
Development at Rutgers University, reports that $3.5 billion in
expected construction investment
by the pharmaceutical/medical
technology industries between
2007 and 2008 will create 34,000
construction and related jobs and
$740 million in local, state and
federal taxes.
Chris Cestone, Skanska senior vice presidentaccount manager for science and technology and
the pharmaceutical market in New Jersey.
24
November, 2008
Henderson Excels at Life Science Construction
T
he Henderson Corporation, Raritan, is a construction management, general contracting and design/build firm specializing in the pharmaceutical and
biotech industries. Offering construction services since 1953, the firm has been building a variety of projects including headquarters, research and
development laboratories, teaching laboratories, manufacturing facilities, vivariums, and hazardous storage facilities for major pharmaceutical and
biotech companies, as well as higher education institutions. Past and current clients include: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Carter-Wallace, Exxon Biomedical,
GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson Companies. Most recently, the firm completed several biotech projects for Rutgers and Seton Hall universities
and the University of Pennsylvania.
The Seton Hall University McNulty Science & Technology Center is counted among the company’s successful projects. The scope of the work for
this facility included demolition and fit-out of an existing 4-story structure and a 25,000 square-foot addition.
The 80,000 square-foot Rutgers University Biomedical Engineering Building on the Busch Campus, Piscataway, has laboratories for genomic and
protemics, tissue engineering, biomedical imaging products, micro-fabrication and animal study. Special features include a 150-seat lecture hall, clean
room, teaching and research laboratories, vivarium space, high performance computing, visualization center, offices and classrooms. The recent completion of the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts & Sciences Research Building included a new 107,000 square foot flex-labs for biology and plant
growth chambers that utilize an emergency power system and a completely independent heating, ventillation & air conditiong (HVAC) system.
Through the arduous process of construction management, Henderson is systematic in the way it provides services. The foundation of its approach
is a structured process that starts early during the preconstruction phase, where major components are addressed, such as project planning, cost development, schedule development and procurement. As the work continues, Henderson engages the rest of the project team to develop and implement a
project plan, which outlines and defines all budgetary, schedule, quality, safety and other goals which are maintained throughout the project.
Since LifeCell Corp. moved six
years ago into Murray Corporate
Center in Branchburg, built by
Murray Construction, Millburn,
the biotech firm has invested in
several expansions that include
more office, lab and clean room
space. LifeCell today occupies a
140,000-square-foot building at 1
Millennium Way. Roche Molecular
Systems occupies 70,000 square
feet at 2 Millennium Way. Both
were spec buildings, indicates
Jeff Siegel, Murray Construction
executive vice president of real
estate. As such, the floors had not
yet been completed, “which was
fortunate since each tenant had
unique plumbing requirements related to its labs and manufacturing
that would have been extremely
New Jersey busiNess
25
The newly-completed East Village buildings and parking garage at Novartis’ U.S. headquarters in E. Hanover.
difficult to accommodate if the
floors had been finished.”
To responsively meet the
unique needs of New Jersey’s life
sciences companies and efficiently
compete for industry jobs, several
large contracting firms have created sector-centric teams. Structure
Tone, a construction management
firm with New Jersey offices in
Hamilton and Lyndhurst, has
established a technology/pharmaceutical/life sciences sector team.
The company recently completed
a 142,500-square-foot headquarters
building for Barr Laboratories in
Montvale and a 167,000-square-
Flemming Nielsen, Octapharma USA’s president.
26
November, 2008
foot renovation for Novo Nordisk
in Princeton.
Patrick Toner, Structure Tone
regional vice president, reports
much of his firm’s work today involves renovations, as large pharmaceutical firms that had been
making major investments in their
overseas operations have begun
investing construction capital back
in the U.S. for building renovations and R&D facility upgrades,
in part to combat competition
from generics. “These workplace
improvement investments are
also significant initiatives to help
attract and retain top research
talent and facilitate collaboration
between scientific and business
operations staff,” Toner says.
“Many pharmaceutical corporations will only retain construction professionals who have a
proven track record for safety, who
know cGLP and cGMP and who
can build to FDA and International
Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE) standards,” Toner
adds. “The ability to perform
commissioning and validation of
technical facilities is also an important issue, and, in today’s climate,
financial stability and bonding capacity are paramount. Our safety
record and commitment to quality
are hallmarks of our organization
that mirror these key mandates
of our science and technology
clients.”
Big pharma, like other industries, is increasingly requesting
LEED or eco-friendly design
and construction. Structure Tone
has over 125 LEED Accredited
Professionals (LEED APs) on
staff. Skanska USA Building Inc.,
with corporate headquarters in
Parsippany, also employs well
over 100 LEED professionals and
actively offers a program that
promotes LEED accreditation for
its clients’ facilities. Additionally,
Skanska has created a science and
technology sector that provides
pre-construction management,
design-build, commissioning and
qualification services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients.
“With the industry’s stringent
standards, our employees, as well
as our subcontractors, need to
be trained in current cGLP and
cGMP,” states Chris Cestone,
Skanska senior vice presidentaccount manager for science and
technology and the pharmaceutical market in New Jersey. “They
need to understand life science
client requirements for cleanliness, timelines and the materials
that can be used – demands that
are more stringent than in other
industries.”
Noting life sciences firms can
be exacting clients due to the
rigorous speed-to-market cycles,
Cestone adds, “Safety is a top priority with them, so we need to be
meticulous about what we do and
how we do it.”
Gannett Fleming, a full-service
design firm, works with New
Jersey life sciences clients from its
offices in Trenton, South Plainfield
and Mt. Laurel, plus New York
and Philadelphia, through its
Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology
Services (PBS) division.
“Our philosophy is to develop
a project partnership, incorporating the entire team,” says Gannett
Fleming Vice President George
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Angie McGuire, acting chief of Governor Corzine’s
Office of Economic Growth.
Link, PE. “Regardless of the project size, we recognize that there
are many entities that have a hand
in the success of the project and
firmly believe in a collaborative
approach.” While these collaborations differ from project to project,
they typically include representatives from the client company,
Gannett Fleming PBS, the construction manager, contractors and
vendors as well as regulators who
inspect and provide final approval.
“We have found that this
approach is the most effective
method to properly understand
the owner’s needs, translate those
needs into an effective and constructible design package, and
implement that design in the field
with the construction manager and
commissioning entity,” Link says.
Gilbane Building Company,
with its northeastern U.S. headquarters in Lawrenceville, serves
the pharmaceutical, biotechnology
and medical devices marketplaces
through its Life Sciences Center of
Excellence (COE).
“Through our COE, we bring
to each life sciences client the
experience and expertise gained
through similar projects we’ve
done nationwide,” explains Tricia
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Faught, the COE knowledge manager who supports a life sciences
project team by identifying similar
Gilbane projects around the country. Having a formal structure for
sharing information internally is
especially helpful in the life sciences industry, where firms are
highly proprietary not only about
their methods and procedures, but
about their space and build-outs
and tend not to share information
outside their corporate walls.
While the state offers pharmaceutical and biotech companies programs and incentives to
attract life sciences companies to
New Jersey and help them once
they’re here, it’s apparent that the
construction industry is similarly
on board as a key resource to the
firms. The contractors are committed to understanding the firms’
needs and establishing symbiotic
relationships that benefit each other, as well as the state’s business
community and overall economy.
Newark Launches Ferry
Street Streetscaping
The City of Newark begins the
streetscaping of Ferry Street. The project,
a partnership between the city, the
New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Ironbound Business
Improvement District (IBID), will enhance
the Ironbound’s central artery and
gateway to businesses and restaurants in
the East Ward, as well as improve safety
conditions for pedestrians crossing the
busy thoroughfares.
The $1.9-million project, funded by
Newark and the DOT, will include stateof-the-art sidewalks with planters and
decorative lighting placed down Ferry
Street from Union to Merchant Streets.
Phase I of the Ferry Street
Streetscaping is expected to be completed by May 2009. The Newark Urban
Enterprise Zone is providing $2-million to
fund Phase II of the project, which will
cover Madison Street to Merchant Street
(Five Corners), and is scheduled to begin
in Summer 2009.