Pfizer’s 150-acre campus in Somerset County targeted for redevelopment. Here’s the plan
PEAPACK-GLADSTONE – The Pfizer corporate campus on Route 206 is being eyed as a site for senior citizens housing.
The borough's Land Use Board has scheduled a public hearing for 7 p.m. March 6 on a proposed amendment to the municipality's master plan that would zone the 148-acre site for the project.
Melillo Equities, a private real estate equity firm headquartered in Far Hills, has presented to the borough a proposal for:
Potentially 200-plus units of 55-and-over rentals with a set aside for affordable housing;
95 assisted living units, including 10 affordable units to meet Medicare requirements, or as an alternative a 100,000-square-foot extended stay hotel;
Demolition of the two existing parking garages;
Self-storage for residents of the development;
Dedication of open space and trails to connect to the borough's trail system;
The existing solar farm will continue to provide electricity to the property, with the possibility that excess electricity be returned to the grid and be available to the community that could result in a subsidy to reduce electricity costs for the entire borough;
A possible medical arts building.
According to a report prepared by Burgis Associates, the borough's planner, the development will increase Peapack-Gladstone's population by 353 residents, or 13.7%, but none of those residents would be children attending public schools.
The proposal would also generate 57 jobs if the assisted living facility were built or 170 jobs if the extended stay hotel were built, the report says.
The total value of the property is $83.2 million with a 2023 property tax revenue of $1.5 million.
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Melillo Equities has estimated that its development would have an assessment of about $150 million and produce $2.7 million in property tax revenue. That, the report says, would result in an annual surplus of $1.29 million to the Somerset Hills Regional School District.
The report also concludes that the possibility of another pharmaceutical company occupying the campus is "not likely" given that the pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a restructuring.
In addition, the report concludes that repurposing the property as an office complex is "not realistic."
The report also notes that since 2010, the senior population in the United States has risen by 4%. In Peapack-Gladstone, those 55 and over make up more than a third of the population.
The only other senior housing in the borough are nine units operated by St. Luke's Church.
"There is still a significant gap in the market to address the housing needs of the borough's senior population," the report states.
The borough has approved a 93-unit residential development on the opposite side of Route 206.
Pfizer announced last autumn that it was closing the campus, which employed more than 800 people, early this year because of slumping pharmaceutical sales.
The campus has 10 buildings totaling 55,000 square feet and two two-story parking garages.
A spokesperson for Pfizer, which had plans to sell the Route 206 campus going back to 2021, said last autumn "the vast majority of colleagues will be re-assigned to Pfizer’s New York headquarters with a small portion transitioning to the company’s Parsippany site."
Pfizer's 130-acre campus opened in 1981 as the headquarters of Beneficial Finance and was considered as a model for suburban corporate campuses.
The property was later bought by Pharmacia & Upjohn in 1998 and five years later, Pfizer bought Pharmacia & Upjohn and acquired the property.
The news of the facility's closure came as Pfizer announced it had lost more than $2 billion in the third quarter of 2022 as an expected COVID product sales decline clipped revenue.
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.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Pfizer Somerset County NJ corporate campus targeted for redevelopment