Morristown Remains Front and Center as Companies Transform Their Real Estate
With the opening of Sanofi’s new flagship office, Morristown has welcomed its third blue-chip corporation in a new ground-up office building in less than three years. The common thread isn’t just SJP Properties, the esteemed developer behind each project, but the crucial workplace trends that seem all but indisputable in today’s environment.
“I think any companies that really care about their employees and about productivity — and want to see their companies advance — they have to get people excited about coming back to work … excited about learning and excited about recruiting,” said Steve Pozycki, SJP Properties’ founder and CEO. “If you can do all those things, there’s no company that’s going to compete with you. And if you don’t do those kinds of things, you’re going to be left behind.”
Sanofi is the latest and clearest example of that. The Paris-based health care giant opened its new $130 million, 260,000-square-foot office on Morris Street in late March, occupying the west building in SJP’s mixed-use M Station complex. Nearly 2,000 employees are now set to occupy the vibrant, resort-like space that has everything from an on-site primary care clinic to a 17,000-square-foot landscaped rooftop and perks such as fully subsidized mass transit — all steps from the Morristown train station and in one of the state’s most coveted downtowns.
“Sanofi is in the process of increasing its in-office presence, and I would tell you that this office has seen above-anticipated levels of participation,” said Ashley Gross, the company’s vice president of global real estate. “And we’re roughly 60 days in now and it’s continuing in that way. So we think that’s a good first indicator for us here.”
“People want to be here,” Meaghan Hollywood, associate director for North America real estate operations with Sanofi, added last week during a tour of the Gensler-designed space. That’s no surprise for an office that also has its own coworking hub, multiple terraces and dedicated rooms for meditation and nursing mothers, plus at least three coffee stations on every floor.
Pozycki’s firm, which also managed the interior fit-out for the space, has spent more than three decades building for some of the world’s largest companies. That work in recent years has focused largely on Morristown, where it attracted Deloitte LLP as the tenant for the 110,000-square-foot first phase of M Station and where it built a new 120,000-square-foot headquarters for Valley Bank about a half-mile away, before turning its focus to Sanofi at M Station West.
Those businesses that hope to attract and retain the best talent will likely follow suit, Pozycki said. All it takes is a common understanding of the company’s future.
“You’ve got to have communication within the company, from your CEO down through CFO, to your heads of people and real estate, so that they’re all on the same page and understand what kind of environment will be best to get your company to produce those results,” he said. He also acknowledged the difficulty of making a major real estate commitment “because that’s not the business they’re in,” especially in the current uncertain environment.
“They’re in whatever business they’re in, and if it’s not real estate, it’s a complicated decision because they don’t do it every day,” Pozycki added. “They do it once every five years, 10 years, 15 years, so it’s a difficult decision to make, but it has to become a priority.”
Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty said he believes other corporations are actively weighing their options in the town because of both its vibrant business district and the growing residential population in Morris County.
“It’s the amount of young people that have moved into this area,” he said. “So the employment base is here, and I think that’s a real opportunity for corporations that are looking to move here, small or large.”
And while downtown Morristown is both supply- and land-constrained, Dougherty said companies could find space through the types of creative solutions that made the Deloitte, Valley Bank and Sanofi deals possible.
“There are a few other opportunities in town and we’re open to anything that’s good for the community, that’s a positive to make sure our business district stays strong and vibrant,” Dougherty said after last week’s ribbon-cutting at the Sanofi building. “And that’s what these types of corporations do. They bring in real wallets into our downtown. You see it already. The people that are here — the 500 to 700 people that are already in this building — you see them out walking in town, you see them in the restaurants, you see them in the shops.”
Sanofi is among the latest to move to Morristown after leaving a vast suburban campus along Route 202/206 in Bridgewater. Its new building at M Station is also adorned with locally sourced artwork, while it provides light-filled workspaces with natural materials that will help it earn a gold rating with the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design scale and compliance with the International WELL Building Institute.
Other features will include two public-facing restaurants — The Morris Proper and Tatte Bakery & Cafe — both slated to open this summer on the ground floor.
“This is truly the best office we have anywhere in the world,” Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson said during a ceremony last week that drew Gov. Phil Murphy and other public officials. “Until the next one — that’s how we work — but it is also a place where I think miracles will be born for this great company and the patients that we serve.”