Pharma Firm Moves US HQ to Waterfront

HOBOKEN, NJ-Octapharma will become the first pharmaceutical company to have a headquarters in this waterfront city. The Lachen, Switzerland-based company, an independent plasma fraction specialist, has signed a lease for 15,204 sf in a deal that signals the relocation of its US headquarters here from Centerville, VA.

The signing comes at SJP Properties’ 13-story Waterfront Corporate Center II at 121 River St. Combined with the Waterfront I building, the complex totals 943,000 sf, a number that will jump to 1.5 million sf when the under-construction Waterfront III building is completed.

The deal was brokered by VP Dino Mattessich of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Parsippany office. Terms were not released. Availabilities at the complex are currently listed with rents as “negotiable;” comparable space in buildings nearby is generally listed with asking prices in the $30-to-$35-per-sf range.

“There is no better location for our US headquarters,” says Flemming Neilsen, general manager of Octapharma USA. “We see our staffing needs tripling over the next year, and this building gives us the room to expand. The New York and New Jersey area also provides the talent pool we need.”

The Parsippany-based SJP has as its partners in the development of Waterfront Corporate Center, actually the redevelopment of a former waterfront industrial site, Prudential Insurance, the Port Authority of NY/NJ and the City of Hoboken.