BEDMINSTER – MetLife has hired a global real estate firm "to lead the repositioning" of its 197-acre office complex that was the former home of AT&T and is now known as Bedminster Technology Center.
JLL, in a press release, announced on Monday that it is marketing the property on Route 202-206 just north of Interstate 287 for single- or multi-tenant lease, sale or site redevelopment.
MetLife bought the campus, which was once AT&T's Global Network Operations Center, in 2006 for $270 million.
AT&T has moved it employees to a 230,000-square foot building on Route 206 known as the Somerset Financial Center which once housed Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, which declared bankruptcy in 2020 three years after moving to Bedminster. The company has since emerged from bankruptcy.
AT&T's lease with MetLife expired last year.
The Bedminster Technology Center, owned now by ML One Bedminster LLC, part of MetLife, has four interconnected buildings totaling 939,795 square feet, a heliport and 15 acres of covered and surface parking.
In November 2022, Bedminster Township rezoned the property bordering I-287 for up to 2 million square feet for biotech research and development and advanced manufacturing uses, with about 300,000 square feet available for a conference center, hotel and amenities that could include a fitness center, restaurants or retail.
Bedminster and Somerset County began studying the future of the site in 2017 when Walter Lane, Somerset County's director of Planning, Policy and Economic Development, recognized that the site was vulnerable as a single-tenant corporate office.
That led to a planning grant from the Highlands Council which resulted in the development of the rezoning ordinance.
“This remarkable campus is effectively a blank canvas,” said Dan Loughlin, vice chairman of JLL who is leading the marketing team. “With its current redundant infrastructure capacity and fully secured location with superior transportation options and access to a highly educated population, Bedminster Technology Center could be redeveloped with its as-of-right zoning as a technology park for the development of advanced manufacturing facilities in an expedited timeframe.”
According to JLL, demand for specialty manufacturing facilities and lab space in the region has remained strong. In its Q4 2023 Life Science Market Insight, the firm said that more than 20% of leases signed in New Jersey during the quarter involved pharmaceutical or life science companies.
The landscape of the Somerset Hills changed drastically in the 1970s when AT&T opened the Bedminster facility and its corporate headquarters also along I-287 in Bernards Township, which is now a Verizon's Operational Headquarters. The move also spurred growth throughout Somerset County centered in the Route 202 and 206 corridors.
The total population of Bedminster and Bernards more than doubled from 15,902 to 36,102 in the half century since AT&T announced it was moving to Somerset County.
The Bedminster facility became the command center of AT&T's long-distance operations and extensive security measures were put in place to protect the property.
But in 1982, the Justice Department mandated the breakup of AT&T, which was the sole telephone company for most of the United States. AT&T continued to be a provider of long-distance service while newly created regional companies, nicknamed Baby Bells, provided local service.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
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