By VASHTI HARRIS
Staff Writer
HOLMDEL — Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) has signed a lease with Somerset Development to relocate its regional headquarters next year to the Bell Works complex at 101 Crawfords Corner Road in Holmdel.
In a ceremony and press conference, JCP&L signed a 10-year lease agreement on Oct. 27 with Somerset Development to occupy 64,000 square feet in Building One at the four-building Bell Works. The lease at JCP&L’s current regional headquarters in Red Bank expires next year, according to JCP&L’s press release.
JCP&L is a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. and serves 1.1 million New Jersey customers in the counties of Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren, according to the press release.
Nearly 200 JCP&L engineering, corporate billing, human resources, senior management, outage restoration and support staff employees will be relocated from the current Red Bank facility to Bell Works by early summer of next year, according to the press release.
“We are moving from our Red Bank location, so when we were deciding where to move, it was important to us that we didn’t disturb the lives of our employees. We also wanted to expand and find a location that had more amenities,” said President of JCP&L James Fakult.
“We told our employees on Monday, and they were really excited about the move. There are a lot of employees that are already familiar with the [Bell Works building] because many grew up in the area, so there are many local connections with this place,” Fakult said.
Bell Works, formerly Bell Labs, is the two-million-square-foot adaptive reuse initiative in Holmdel, led by Somerset Development.
Once the home of some of the most monumental technological innovations of the 20th century, Bell Works reimagines the historical building as a workplace of the future. It is being revived as a dynamic, collaborative workplace, complete with a blossoming ecosystem of technology, traditional office, retail, dining and hospitality, according to Somerset Development’s press release.
In addition to JCP&L, current tenants include: ICIMS, WorkWave, Symbolic IO, Vi Coworking, Acacia Communications Inc, NVIDIA Coup, McCann Systems, Spirent communicatons and Suttons International, according to Desiree Santiago Fagan, Media Strategist for Beckerman PR.
“We are excited and gratified. We are honored that a company like JCP&L, [which is] so dedicated to giving their employees an inspiring place to work, chose Bell Works as their new location,” said Raphael Zucker, president of Somerset Development. “Bell Works is proving that companies don’t have to travel far in order to find an inspirational place to work.”
“It’s clear that Bell Works and Holmdel are collectively becoming one of the state’s true business hubs. This location not only provides JCP&L with central access to its customer base, but also a place where it can lay its roots among a burgeoning community of innovative companies,” said Holmdel Mayor Eric Hinds.
To learn more information about the Bell Works building, visit www.bell.works. To learn more information about JCP&L, visit www.firstenergycorp.com.
Vashti Harris can be contacted at [email protected].