The basics:

• BioNJ opened a satellite office at the NJ Innovation Hub
• Association aims to deepen collaboration with startups and researchers
• Hub launched with 16 founding members powered by Portal Innovations
• Move strengthens New Jersey’s growing life sciences ecosystem

When complete, HELIX will comprise 1.5 million square feet, representing $2.2 billion worth of investment. “But it all started with this,” New Brunswick Development Corp. President Christopher Paladino said, speaking on the ninth floor at H-1 in the NJ Health and Life Science Exchange rising in New Brunswick. 

“This” is the New Jersey Innovation Hub. The 30,000-square-foot life science incubator at 20 French St. officially opened its doors July 14. Powered by Portal Innovations, NJIH launched with 16 foundational members, among them, BioNJ.

The residency of the state’s largest life sciences association is significant. The group represents over 400 members, ranging from startups to global biopharmaceutical companies.  

The NJ Health and Life Science Exchange will ultimately comprise three towers. H-2’s progress provides built-in entertainment looking out from H-1, with construction well underway. While that building will house a new headquarters for Nokia Bell Labs, HELIX’s third piece will introduce housing to the mix. H-3 will stretch 43 stories with four main components: 265 residential units; Rutgers WINLAB & ESRG Research Facilities; office space; and Rutgers School of Medicine Student Housing.

BioNJ revealed it would join the Hub this past spring. Speaking July 14 in New Brunswick, President and CEO Debbie Hart described the new satellite office as a natural extension of the organization’s mission.  

The spot inside the NJ Innovation Hub situates BioNJ “where innovation happens,” Hart said.  

Going up

While its Trenton headquarters places the association in the thick of the policy mix, the New Brunswick outpost embeds the group with the industry’s boots on the ground.

“BioNJ is expanding our ability to convene the community, support entrepreneurs and foster partnerships that accelerate new medical breakthroughs,” Hart said Tuesday. “This space will become another gathering place for our members, committee meetings, educational programs, networking events, conversations that spark collaboration.” 

And that interaction is essential to the ethos behind HELIX.  

Paladino threaded the needle from a chance conversation with a woman in a Rutgers lab coat in the New Brunswick Starbucks about the inconvenience of working, researching and trying to launch a startup in New Jersey, versus her experience at University of Pennsylvania and its walkable ecosystem, to the present.  

It began with reconnaissance missions to Cambridge and Kendall square, moved on to Rutgers University, the search for a “big idea” during the transition to the Murphy administration, the green light, “And then … I immediately went and saw Debbie Hart. Everybody has to go see Debbie Hart,” Paladino said. 

A partnership between the state government, Rutgers University, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, RWJBarnabas Health, Hackensack Meridian Health, Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick Development Corp., BioNJ, along with HELIX, developed the hub. That collaboration behind the project echoes the kinds of networks NJIH aims to build. 

The NJ Innovation Hub footprint is split nearly equal between lab and office space.

Serving both incubator and coworking needs, NJIH features: 

• More than 140 lab benches (individual and private lab suites) 
• Tissue culture hoods; Biosafety Level 2 labs; chemical fume hoods and over $2 million in shared, specialized equipment 
• Access to an onsite, 35,000-square-foot vivarium 

Beyond its 80-plus office desks, amenities include reservable conference rooms, other networking spaces and an active community along with connections to vetted experts. That’s on top of H-1 building services, such as available parking, 24/7 access, secure entry and high-speed internet. 

The New Brunswick train station is steps away, providing NJ Transit and Amtrak service across the wider Northeast Corridor. 

Building something bigger

The NJIH aims to fill a void for supporters, startups, students and researchers by building more than just space, but also intentional proximity to foster camaraderie and complementary innovation. 

Other tenants on the ninth floor include Hackensack Meridian Health and the NJEDA.  

H-1 will also house a Rutgers Translational Lab, medical education space and enterprise space for more established companies. 

Celebrating in NJIH’s expansive town hall space, the Johnson & Johnson Exchange – complete with windows offering laboratory views – offered a first-hand experience as to how the area can, and is, designed to function. 

A central staircase also builds a figurative and literal connection to the 10th floor, where JLL is marketing pre-built lab/office suites.

Referred to as a “step-up lab,” the hope is startups will outgrow the NJIH and move upstairs. Paladino noted short-term leases have already begun filling the space.  

“I have to say there are probably five people in New Jersey, several of whom are in this room who were elated by this idea and even more elated at the fact that this is coming to be,” Hart closed her remarks during the signing event. “Chris Paladino certainly being one of them. [Rutgers University Professor] Chris Molloy, another one of them. [NJEDA Chief Economic Transformation Officer] Kathleen Coviello.

“I would definitely put myself on that list. I pinch myself every day that this is actually coming to be.”