Office park to include 10 office buildings with a total of 1.5 million square feet, and 10 three- and four-deck parking garages with space for 6,697 cars
By: Lea Kahn
LAWRENCE – The Township Planning Board has given RCN Corp. the green light to start building its 1.5 million-square-foot office park.
The board granted final site plan approval to the first phase of the office park and also approved amendments to the original site plan at its Aug. 7 meeting.
The office park is planned for 134 acres bordered by Princeton Pike, Lewisville Road, Franklin Corner Road and Interstate 95.
RCN’s planned headquarters office park includes 10 office buildings with a total of 1.5 million square feet, and 10 three- and four-deck parking garages with space for 6,697 cars. The first phase calls for constructing four office buildings, totaling 610,000 square feet. Five parking garages will be built, accommodating 3,122 cars. The cost of construction of phase one has been estimated at $140 million.
The former Union Camp building, which occupies a portion of the phase one area, will be demolished in the next few weeks. Work is expected to begin in September and take about 14 months to finish.
The board’s approval was unanimous despite several residents expressing concern about the impact of the office park on the neighborhood. Much of the concern involved traffic.
Robin Williams of Pin Oak Drive said widening Princeton Pike, work to be paid by RCN, is not going to be the answer to the traffic problems.