Posted on

Reviving Suburbia: Giving Aging Malls and Office Parks a New Lease on Life

xanadu_theridgewoodblog.net_-300x225

Reviving Suburbia: Giving Aging Malls and Office Parks a New Lease on Life  

Rather than standing empty, yesterday’s archetypes of suburban sprawl are being reinvented as vibrant places to work, play, and live.

Holmdel’s iconic Bell Labs Research complex — the site of at least one Nobel prize discovery — now has another distinction, one that residents and elected officials would sooner do without.

The circa 1962 complex is the largest empty office building in the nation.

Architecturally significant for its mirrored glass façade, the 2 million-square-foot facility has sat abandoned on its 473-acre campus since 2006.

The empty building exemplifies the deep trouble that New Jersey’s office parks and shopping centers face, victims of the recent trend that favors reinvesting in urban centers over continuing suburban and exurban sprawl — a trend taking hold across the state and the country.

This urban migration compounds the problem of an existing glut of retail space that real estate analyst Jeff Otteau predicts will meet the state’s needs for another 17 years. He also cites a surfeit of office space that won’t be used up until 2043. And because the state’s suburban corporate and commercial construction boomed more than 20 years ago, the New Jersey League of Municipalities Educational Foundation calls the current building stock not just aging but obsolete.

Some developers and municipalities are finding success creatively reusing these so-called stranded assets, converting them into mixed-use projects that offer a place to live and a place to work — vibrant daytime and nighttime activities.

But to do that, they first have to ensure cooperation from the public and loosen zoning restrictions that allow for corporate or commercial use only. Only then can they hope to reverse the tide and keep these structures relevant.

“Information technology, globalization, and demographics have changed the very internal functions of office buildings, and their preferred locations,” the foundation wrote last summer to promote a forum on redeveloping suburban office parks. (Nurin/NJSpotlight)

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/14/03/19/revitalizing-suburbia-giving-aging-malls-and-office-parks-a-second-lease-on-life/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *