Cloud computing firm CoreWeave is paying $322 million to acquire the North Jersey property where it plans to invest $1.2 billion to build a data center, marking one of the Garden State's biggest commercial real estate sales this year.
Livingston, New Jersey-based CoreWeave is buying part of the Northeast Science and Technology Center, or NEST, campus in Kenilworth, New Jersey. The overall 107-acre, 2 million-square-foot mixed-use property is the reimagining of the former headquarters of Merck, the pharmaceutical giant.
Last October, CoreWeave, specializing in artificial intelligence infrastructure, announced it would construct a data center at NEST and was leasing a 280,000-square-foot building on the campus for it. Now, CoreWeave is purchasing the portion of the campus that includes that building and the land immediately surrounding it.
Woodbridge, New Jersey-based Onyx Equities and Machine Investment Group, headquartered in New York, bought the Merck campus at 2000 Galloping Hill Road in February 2023 for $187.5 million with plans to reposition it as a multitenant life-science-and-innovation hub. They were represented by Newmark in the sale of part of the site to CoreWeave.
“This transaction underscores the accelerating demand for high-powered, well-located sites capable of supporting AI and cloud workloads at scale,” Doug Harmon, co-head of U.S. capital markets for Newmark, said in a statement.
Onyx and Machine Investment retain ownership of the rest of the NEST property.
CoreWeave didn't respond to an email from CoStar News on Friday seeking comment.
NEST has nine buildings — including office, lab, research and development and support facilities — as well as robust utility infrastructure with a 50-megawatt substation, cogeneration and chiller plants, and a central boiler facility. The property still has 36 acres available for future redevelopment and offers amenities such as a cafeteria, fitness center, conference center, auditorium, heliport, underground parking and on-site management office.
For the record
The Newmark team representing the sellers was led by Co-Head of Strategic Advisory Andrew Warin and Executive Vice Chairman Josh King, in collaboration with Head of Data Center and Digital Infrastructure Capital Markets Brent Mayo, and oversight from Co-Head of U.S. Capital Markets Doug Harmon and Co-Head of Global Debt & Structured Finance Jordan Roeschlaub. Cushman & Wakefield represented the buyer, CoreWeave.