PTC Therapeutics Signs 185,000 SF Lease at Bristol-Myers Squibb Campus

HOPEWELL, NJ—PTC Therapeutics of South Plainfield, NJ has signed a long-term lease for 185,000 square feet with Bristol-Myers Squibb for multiple buildings at its 433-acre Princeton West R&D campus here.

The global biopharmaceutical company will occupy an existing state-of-the-art biologics production facility at 311 Pennington-Rocky Hill Road, as well as house research and operations there. The lease deal was announced by brokerage firm JLL.

PTC Therapeutics will occupy Buildings 9, 10, 12, 13 and a portion of Building 18 at the Princeton West campus. PTC plans to further develop the biologics facility to support gene therapy production, and foster innovation and employment in the community. In addition, the firm plans to move its research operations to a newly renovated building on the same campus. These facilities will complement and enhance existing operations at PTC Therapeutics’ global headquarters in South Plainfield.

Building owner Bristol-Myers Squibb was represented by Daniel Loughlin, vice chairman and head of office brokerage in New Jersey for JLL; Joseph Garibaldi and James Medenbach, managing directors; and John Buckley and Robert Ryan, senior vice presidents of JLL. They worked closely with a multi-disciplinary team from Bristol-Myers Squibb. PTC Therapeutics was represented by Charles Parmelli, director, with Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Christopher Costa, shareholder, and Christopher Tarr, partner, with law firm Stevens & Lee, P.C. represented Bristol-Myers Squibb; Robert Klausner and Mat Carlson, partners, with law firm Fox Rothschild LLP represented PTC Therapeutics.

“Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Hopewell campus is a state-of-the-art, move-in ready research, innovation and manufacturing space that is located in a region with a highly skilled workforce,” Loughlin says. “Repositioning a corporate campus to accommodate multiple users is challenging and complex. JLL appreciates the vision and efforts of all the other project stakeholders that enabled this unique property to facilitate PTC Therapeutics’ exciting growth and future in New Jersey.”

PTC Therapeutics announced in August when releasing its second quarter financials that it had has signed a long-term lease agreement securing a state-of-the-art biologics facility to support the company’s expansion into multiple gene therapy programs. The company stated that the facility was currently operating under cGMP standards by its current tenant, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and will be fully transitioned to PTC by mid-2020. PTC intends to consolidate its discovery and research operations in the same campus.

The 433-acre, 1.1 million-square-foot property features 33 buildings, including chemistry, biology and biotechnology research and development facilities; a biological clinical supply manufacturing facility; warehouse space; and corporate offices. A full-service café, substantial fitness center and multiple conference spaces are available for tenants’ use.

Bristol-Myers Squibb and JLL have been exploring a variety of approaches including leasing large portions of the complex to like-kind users while simultaneously pursuing a sale to a single investor, JLL states. Additional space for lease includes 500,000 square feet of research and development space, a portion of which contains two recently renovated state-of-the-art biology R&D modules.

The property also features a 106,000-square-foot global data center and 330,000 square feet of office space for lease. The campus is supported by a central utility complex, including an N-4 waste water treatment plant that can facilitate future development. The site is expandable by 1.8 million square feet, with local zoning recently changed to allow for the production and assembly uses related to the fields of medicine, pharmacology and biologics.