Prism Capital Partners said Aug. 5 that a critical step toward advancing ON3 – the 116-acre flagship redevelopment spanning Essex and Passaic counties, centered on creating a walkable, mixed-use campus – received approval from the city of Clifton to accommodate limited retail uses at the property.

The approved redevelopment plan paves the way for restaurants, small shops, a neighborhood market and other services aimed at supporting existing ON3 businesses, its employees and area residents.

“Clifton’s decision allows us to move forward with a redevelopment plan that provides critical complementary uses to support the office, R&D and academic tenants at ON3,” said Prism’s Eugene Diaz, principal partner. “Redevelopment is supposed to assess market opportunities, and then plan and develop uses to enhance and revitalize an area.

“Clifton City officials continue to demonstrate that they understand this, and we applaud them for doing what is necessary to help attract best-in-class organizations and provide them with an unparalleled campus experience,” Diaz added.

Clifton also recently facilitated the introduction of a hospitality component at ON3 by granting final site plan approval for a 266-room dual-brand Marriott AC/Element Hotel. The seven-story structure, which will feature both limited-service and extended-stay options, will occupy a parcel near the main entrance at Route 3.

Late last year, the city approved a build-to-suit medical office building at ON3, to be developed at the southeast corner of Metro Boulevard and Route 3. The 80,000-square-foot facility is pre-leased to Hackensack Meridian Health, which already occupies academic and R&D space at the campus, including for its School of Medicine and the Center for Discovery and Innovation (an NIH-designated Clinical Research Center). The new medical office building will include an ambulatory surgical center as well as additional multi-specialty practice areas.

Representing the state’s largest contemplated redevelopment, the ON3 campus currently is home to 1.45 million square feet of existing office and lab/R&D product occupied – or soon-to-be-occupied – by blue-chip organizations including Eisai Inc., Quest Diagnostics, Ralph Lauren Corp., Modern Meadow, Y-mAbs Therapeutics, and Seton Hall University’s Graduate College of Nursing and School of Health and Medical Sciences.

Eisai’s full-building lease of ON3’s flagship 200 Metro Blvd. office tower was New Jersey’s largest office lease in 2020 and brought the property’s built space to 100% occupancy.

In addition to the hundreds of construction jobs created by the ongoing redevelopment, Prism expects that more than 5,500 people will be employed on the former Hoffmann-La Roche campus by the end of 2021.