JCP&L will sell its Morris County HQ. Another office building falls to remote work trend
Another Morris County office building is on the market, a victim to the remote-work revolution. JCP&L plans to sell its northern New Jersey regional headquarters building in Morris Township, the utility says, now that about half of the 150 employees based at the Madison Avenue site are mobile or work from home.
Employees in need of office space will find it relocated to JCP&L facilities in Holmdel at Bell Works, the former home of AT&T's Bell Labs division, said Christopher Hoenig, a spokesperson for JCP&L parent company First Energy.
"Based on pre-COVID underutilization and our transition to a mobile workforce, we anticipate 70% vacancy if the building is maintained as-is," he said this week, adding that no workforce reductions are planned.
JCP&L will continue to maintain all of its local line workers, who will operate out of their current facilities in Morris County and surrounding areas. That includes a substation on Ridgedale Avenue in Morristown.
JCP&L office, 8 acres up for sale
In March, JCP&L filed for approval to sell the 8-acre property at 300 Madison Avenue with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. Hoenig said the approval is largely a formality but can take several months. The property is already listed on commercial real estate websites.
The property's future is unclear, but the site, located about a mile east of Morristown Medical Center and Route 287, is zoned for office, research and laboratory uses. Morris County has seen its commercial landscape transformed in recent years, with vacant office properties knocked down and replaced with hundreds of housing units or vast warehouses.
More: COVID was a final blow to some NJ suburban office parks. Here's how they're morphing
The JCP&L site includes a three-story, 201,000-square-foot office building, built in 1986, and a two-story garage with capacity for 425 vehicles.It is assessed at $21.4 million, state records show, with an annual tax bill of $429,070.
JCP&L houses its regional administrative functions there, including the company's Northern New Jersey Distribution Control Center (DCC), which will move to Holmdel.
The company also plans to open another Morris County facility that will house a "fully functional backup DCC" to support operations during emergencies for both the Northern and Central New Jersey territories.
William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com
Twitter: @wwesthoven
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: JCP&L selling North Jersey headquarters in Morris County
