Jets Unveil Plans for $50M Complex

FLORHAM PARK, NJ-The New York Jets have unveiled preliminary designs for the NFL team’s new headquarters and training facilities, and an all-star design team put those plans together. Architects David Childs (of Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center fame), and Roger Duffy of Skidmore Owings and Merrill, and Tom Krizmanic of Studios Architecture are the creative force behind the plans.

By the numbers, the HQ/training complex will cost an estimated $50 million. The 20-acre site will be built out with 120,000 sf of building space, including offices, classrooms, locker room and weight room areas, along with four practice fields and an enclosed field house. The complex is expected to be ready in time for summer 2008 training, with the team slated to move its headquarters here from Hofstra University on New York’s Long Island.

“Our new corporate campus will accommodate the needs of our football and business operations, all under one roof,” says Jets president Jay Cross. “I want to thanks SOM and Studios for their collaboration on this preliminary design.”

“You don get one of these projects every day,” says Childs. “When you say that you’re working on the Jets, everyone smiles. The Jets organization is one of our greatest regional institutions, and we’re very pleased to be helping them create this new facility.”

Other features of the plan include an auditorium and medical facilities. The design includes a long tunnel that will permit foot traffic to move throughout the complex. The facility is part of the Jets and New York Giants’ deal with the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority to build a new $1-billion stadium complex for both teams in the Meadowlands.

While the Giants will keep their HQ at the Meadowlands site, the Jets opted to locate off-site, ultimately picking Florham Park after a six-month search that involved some 40 sites in the Garden State. As part of the stadium deal, the NJSEA is buying the site for a reported $20 million.

The local site is also part of a larger 500-acre tract that was at one time a private estate and more recently an ExxonMobil headquarters and research campus. Sales of various parcels by ExxonMobil are expected to close in November, and various plans offered up by developers have the Jets facility as a centerpiece of a mixed-use redevelopment encompassing 600,000 sf of office space, 500 luxury residential units, a hotel and retail space.