Newark Connected & Cost Efficient: Why Your Company Should Move to Newark

Earlier this year, Amazon named Newark as one of the top finalists in the company’s HQ2 location search. To those familiar with the Brick City, this came as no surprise; Newark has long enjoyed a host of infrastructural and geographical advantages—it’s just 20 minutes from New York City—that have made it a growing business hub.

Amazon isn’t the only business that’s been attracted to Newark while scouting a headquarters location. Other established, multinational companies have also turned to the city as a viable option for their corporate headquarters, including Audible Inc., an Amazon-owned company which employs 1,000 workers to produce and sell audio entertainment. Mars Wrigley Confectionary, the chocolate company behind M&M’s, recently announced that one of its U.S. headquarters will open in Newark by July of 2020, bringing with it about 500 new jobs.

Last December, Broadridge Financial Solutions, a fintech company that provides technical services to financial institutions, moved 1,000 employees from Jersey City and New York City to 2 Gateway, a leading office tower in the heart of Newark that is connected via skywalk to Newark Penn Station. Standard Chartered Bank, a London-based institution, which provides financial products and services to corporations, also at 2 Gateway, recently signed a lease extension for its 72,319-square-foot office space. The 2 Gateway building signed leases with businesses across multiple industries in 2017, including one in December with award-winning architectural and design planning firm Minno & Wasko, and the list goes on.

The leasing velocity in the Newark submarket has more than doubled year-over-year and that’s because companies are now looking to Newark as a locale that is practical, convenient, and economical for its executives and employees alike. The city’s downtown is just one stop away via both Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains from New York City’s Penn Station, with commercial rent costs at about a third of what a company would pay if they were to operate in Manhattan. It’s also less expensive than Jersey City and Hoboken, and effectively just as close to NYC. Newark is quickly becoming an attractive destination for businesses throughout the region and beyond.

But unlike other busy urban centers in the region, Newark has the space necessary for these headquarters locations. In fact, 2 Gateway has around 290,000-square-feet available in their Class A building, perfect for any company looking for HQ-quality space, and just one stop away from Midtown, Manhattan.

Not only is Newark emerging as an ideal location at the right price, it is also uniquely positioned to handle all of the technological needs for companies large and small at an affordable cost. Thanks to its legacy as a telecom innovation hub, the city sits directly above the fiber optic cable network that runs along the eastern seaboard, which allows companies to tap into the fastest internet speeds in the country at an extraordinarily competitive price point. The city took advantage of the network to create Newark Fiber, a program offering the highest-speed fiber optics for Newark buildings at the lowest cost in the region for comparable connections. Offering a choice of over 60 providers (compared to Manhattan, which has one), 2 Gateway was the first building to tap into Newark Fiber, enabling owner C&K Properties to offer the connections a la carte to its tenants. This trendsetting nature isn’t foreign to 2 Gateway; in 2014, it became first building in New Jersey to become Wired Certified Platinum by WiredScore, indicating the highest rating for a building’s internet connectivity and technological infrastructure.

Newark’s status as a tech pioneer may come as a surprise to some, but to those in Newark, it’s built into the fabric of the city. This fall, 2 Gateway will play host to the third annual Newark Tech Summit, launching a 7-day series of events called Newark Tech Week, which, with the support of some of its aforementioned tech giants, highlights the city’s burgeoning startup ecosystem. Each year, Newark Tech Week attracts thousands from across the region to learn more about the city’s innovative tech community that is growing by the day.

When it comes to location, cost and connectivity, Newark is in a prime position to strengthen its standing as a regional business powerhouse, with or without Amazon.