CoreWeave Pays $322M for New Jersey Research Campus

Data Centers Development Investment Mixed Use More News Northeast Office

Plans for the site include a $1.2 billion data center conversion project.

The Northeast Science and Technology Center includes office, industrial, biomanufacturing and R&D space across multiple facilities, as well as an extensive amenity package. *Image courtesy of TMRW and HOK*

CoreWeave has paid $322 million for a 2 million-square-foot mixed-use campus in Kenilworth, N.J., according to Yardi Research Data. The seller of the nine-building property, dubbed Northeast Science and Technology Center, was Onyx Equities.

The asset previously traded for $187.5 million in 2023, when Onyx Equities, in a joint venture with Machine Investment Group, purchased it from Merck.

Roughly a year after the 2023 acquisition, the now-sellers announced plans to redevelop the former Merck headquarters campus into a biotechnology hub with industrial, lab, office and R&D space. The buildings within NEST were completed between 1950 and 2014, and underwent renovations between 2006 and 2016.

READ ALSO: Data Center Growth Trends

Occupying 107 acres, the campus at 2000 Galloping Hill Road is close to Garden State Parkway and allows easy access to interstates 78, 278 and 95. NEST is 8 miles from Newark Liberty International Airport and 15 miles from Jersey City, N.J. Science and technology companies nearby include Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Seton Hall University, among others.

NEST comprises three office buildings, two R&D facilities and a vivarium—a facility for live research. Additionally, it includes support buildings, such as a Cogen power plant, a boiler and chiller plant, a 50-megawatt substation and an onsite management office.

Amenities at NEST include a cafeteria, fitness center, conference center, courtyard, auditorium, heliport, as well as multiple underground garage facilities and a restaurant. There are also some 36 acres available for redevelopment purposes, with the former owner’s initial plans also featuring a full-service restaurant, retail spaces, an organic grocery store and a hotel with an onsite restaurant and rooftop bar.

Plans for more

In October last year, CoreWeave signed a long-term lease at NEST, fully occupying a 280,000-square-foot lab facility. At that time, the company announced plans to invest $1.2 billion in converting the building into a data center, its first one in New Jersey, according to NJBIZ. The Onyx-led venture would also pour more than $50 million into CoreWeave’s project.

At a May planning board meeting of the borough of Kenilworth, a CoreWeave official said the artificial intelligence company intends to convert the three-story lab building it occupies into a data center by making minimal improvements to the original structure such as adding stand-by generators and a field of chillers. An operation team of roughly 40 employees would work at the upcoming development. As of today, it is not clear whether CoreWeave plans to convert all buildings within NEST into data centers or just the one it occupies.

Last week, CoreWeave unveiled plans for a $6 billion data center project in Lancaster, Pa. This investment includes the redevelopment of two industrial facilities, an initial capacity of 100 megawatts and up to 300 megawatts at full build-out. Machine Investment Group and Chirisa Technology Parks will co-develop the project.