Chris Paladino, President, New Brunswick Development Corp. (DEVCO)
In an interview with Invest: Chris Paladino, president of the New Brunswick Development Corp. (DEVCO), discussed the organization’s contribution to the growth of New Brunswick and the structure of then HELIX project. “I can see an urban renaissance taking shape,” he noted.
What role has DEVCO played in New Brunswick’s development, and what is your latest project?
For the past 32 years, I have served as the president of the New Brunswick Development Corp. (DEVCO) and have been considered the mastermind behind billions of dollars of construction projects in the city. Through the windows of my seventh-floor office on Albany Street, which overlooks the construction site of the HELIX Innovation District and the soon-to-be renovated New Brunswick Train Station, I can see an urban renaissance taking shape. HELIX, which has been in the works for at least five years of extensive design and planning, sits on four acres. It will bring together some of the world’s most brilliant minds, projects, and organizations pursuing critical life-improving innovation. Collectively, the three separate and unique HELIX buildings could stand on their own as transformative properties. Working together, and at full force, they will greatly expand New Jersey’s leadership position in the global innovation economy.
How is the HELIX project structured, and what impact is it expected to have?
I describe the project in phases: H1, H2 and H3. H1, which will include Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, will also feature research space and the New Jersey Innovation Hub, run by Portal Innovations. A grand opening is planned for the spring of 2026.
H2 will accommodate the new headquarters for Nokia Bell Labs, a global leader in research that has selected New Brunswick to be its headquarters for years to come. I expect H2 to open in the second quarter of 2028.
H3 will be the tallest building in Middlesex County. It will be 42 stories, soaring 500 feet to top the city’s landscape. A joint venture between DEVCO and Pennrose, H3 will have nearly 300,000 square feet of residential space, a new home for Rutgers University’s Wireless Information Network Laboratory and Energy Storage Research Group, and more than 52,000 square feet of student housing for Rutgers School of Medicine students, creating a living-learning environment. It will take three years to build.
We believe HELIX will be the most important commercial real estate project in state history. By the end of 2028, we’ll have 1.5 million square feet of new space, an investment of approximately $2 billion and more than 4,000 people researching, working, living, and learning on four acres across from the New Brunswick Train Station. H1 may become the only building in America that features translational academic research, a medical school, an incubator project, and space for established biotech and pharmaceutical companies to take laboratory space. That caught the attention of Nokia Bell Labs, which saw the perfect ecosystem to pursue its own bright future. H3, to be built at the corner of Paterson and Kirkpatrick streets, has the full backing of the state, which approved a $359 million tax credit in November. There is also a strong interest in creating a venture studio for AI companies in H3 because of so many synergistic research opportunities. We are creating a place for people to collaborate right here, in the heart of New Brunswick.
