Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Jones Lang LaSalle

GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Jets Narrow Potential HQ Sites to Five
By Eric Peterson
Last updated: February 3, 2006 11:13am

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ-And then there were five. After scoping out 40 sites in the Garden State for their new headquarters and training complex, the New York Jets have whittled the candidates down to five sites in five different North Jersey counties. The site search, which involves the team moving its home base from Long Island to the Garden State, is part of its joint venture deal with the New York Giants and the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority to build a new stadium here for the two teams.

The five finalists include a corporate campus at Connell Drive and Valley Road in Berkeley Heights, Union County; the former ExxonMobil headquarters site in Florham Park, Morris County; and a warehouse site and adjoining recreational facility at Caven Point Road and Chapel Avenue in Jersey City, Hudson County. The others are a woodlands tract owned by East Orange WaterWorks in Millburn, Essex County; and the former Curtiss-Wright factory site within Wood-Ridge Industrial Park in Wood-Ridge, Bergen County.

The final round is the result of a site search that began four months ago when the Jets hired Cohn Real Estate to lead them through the process. “After conducting a comprehensive search, we feel that these five most closely meet our specific needs,” says Jets president Jay Cross. “Over the next several weeks we will further evaluate each of them.”

The proposed complex includes an 110,000-sf building to house the team’s operations. The plan also calls for three outdoor practice fields and one indoor field. The cost of the project has been estimated at between $30 million and $50 million. Officials of both the Jets and the NJSEA say they expect to make a final decision by March 1.

As part of the agreement to replace the existing Giants Stadium here, which both teams already call home, the NJSEA, a state agency, agreed to buy sites for both teams’ practice facilities. The Giants’ facility will remain on-site at the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The overall cost of the project, including the stadium, adjacent mixed uses and the two training facilities has been estimated at between $800 million and $1 billion.