Bell Works Announces Three New Retail Leases on Renowned ‘Pedestrian Street’

On May 21, 2018

Somerset Development announced three new ground-floor retail leases at Bell Works, the revitalization of the renowned 2-million-square-foot Bell Laboratories in Holmdel. The new storefronts will help to shape the building’s ever-growing, one-of-a-kind pedestrian street, where Bell Works’ quarter-mile long atrium has been reimagined into a publicly accessible destination for shops, restaurants, healthcare, community services, and more.

Newly announced retail tenants at Bell Works include:

• City Barn | Country Penthouse, a boutique offering home, bed, bath, and other gift items, in addition to home design consultation services.
• Dimension Dental, a premier dental support organization with a network of locations throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
• OceanFirst Bank, a community bank offering commercial and residential financing solutions, wealth management, and deposit services. OceanFirst is the largest and oldest community-based financial institution headquartered in Ocean County.

A Sabre Real Estate Group team led by Senior Vice President Justin Korinis, Director Dina Santarelli and Associate Sean Pyle is serving as the exclusive real estate leasing agent for Bell Works. Somerset Development was represented by Colliers International in the Dimension Dental transaction.

“It’s been incredible to watch the pedestrian street take shape, and the momentum has been especially strong in recent months,” said Korinis. “It all stems from a recognition that, even in suburbs like Holmdel, we can create incredibly diverse and captivating urban-style experiences, where visitors and workers alike can encounter a wide variety of retail options in a centralized, urban-style location.”

With the addition of the new retail options, Bell Works, formerly the historic Bell Labs research facility, is continuing its dramatic transformation into a ‘metroburb’ – a self-contained urban environment in a highly livable suburban locale. The building is already a bustling hub for events, from regional networking symposiums to local community gatherings, and the Holmdel Planning Board recently granted it permission to construct a 200-room hotel on the building’s roof. Earlier in 2017, Bell Works also unveiled its new rooftop deck and lounge, allowing tenants and visitors to enjoy a lunch or coffee break overlooking Bell Works’ pristine, scenic grounds.

In 2017, Bell Works celebrated the opening of the new Holmdel Township Library and Learning Center, which features new educational programs and services, as well as updated technological infrastructure and a museum dedicated to preserving the building’s unique history. Adjacent to the library on the pedestrian street, The American Montessori Society, owner of the newly formed Holmdel Montessori School, opened an innovative teaching facility offering child-centered education that will serve children from infants (six weeks or older) to kindergarten (up to six years old).

The Bell Works community is growing rapidly, with recent office openings including Guradian Life Insurance, a NYC-based insurance giant who chose Bell Works for an office for its technology enterprise. Last year, it welcomed anchor tenant iCIMS, a leading provider of innovative Software-as- a-service (SaaS) talent acquisition solutions, along with the headquarters of cloud-based business management and fleet management solutions company WorkWave. Other prominent commercial tenants include: International Flavors & Fragrances, a leading innovator of sensory experiences; Acacia Communications, a recognized optical transmissions manufacturer; Jersey Central Power and Light; MetTel, a New York City-based telecommunications firm; McCann Systems LLC, a national audiovisual company; NVIDIA Corporation, a publicly traded multi-platform technology firm; Spirent Communications, an international telecommunications firm; Suttons International, a worldwide logistics company; and two dedicated co-working facilities geared toward tech entrepreneurs and designers, respectively.

Originally constructed between 1962 and 1964 by world-renowned modernist architect Eero Saarinen, the building is revered for its role in spurring the development of some of the world’s foremost inventions and research concepts. In its 40-plus year history as the research headquarters for Bell Laboratories, Lucent, and Alcatel-Lucent, the building housed a total of seven Nobel Prize winners, including those who conceived theories for the laser, the Big Bang theory, cellular technology, the transistor, and more.

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