Nokia Says It Plans to Be a Good Neighbor in New Brunswick

The executives at Nokia insist New Brunswick is the perfect place to relocate 1,000 of its researchers who are determined to unlock the next generation of technological wonders.

The global communications equipment corporation plans to mine Rutgers and other Northeast institutions of higher learning for their best and brightest minds, and set them up in labs and maker spaces inside a 10-story, 350,000-square-foot space at the New Jersey Health + Life Science Exchange (HELIX) by 2028.

In return, Nokia Chief Strategy and Technology Officer Nishant Batra said the company will work hard to be a good neighbor.

“First, we’re going to bring the top talent into the neighborhood,” Batra said. “We’re going to make sure we actually get embedded with the academy (school) system here, and not just with the university, because one of the things we like to do is work with the school system.

“(We will) make sure the STEM aspects of the school system is something that we support,” he added.

Gov. Phil Murphy, Mayor Jim Cahill, Middlesex County Commissioner Director Ron Rios, DEVCO President Chris Paladino and New Jersey Economic Development Authority CEO Tim Sullivan formed the welcome wagon Monday at a news conference to announce Nokia’s relocation of its research and development arm to a space across from the New Brunswick Train Station.

Nokia executives at the event at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center said they chose New Brunswick and, more specifically, the second phase of the HELIX project over 25 other locations. And they’ve been looking since 2018 for a suitable place to move from their iconic Bell Labs campus in the Murray Hill section of New Providence.

The Finland-based company will be taking a 20-year lease on the building, known as H-2.

Batra said that while negotiations played out behind the scenes going back to February, he and his colleagues took frequent walks around City Center New Brunswick.

“It was important for us to understand the city better because this is where our people are going to work and live and raise families,” he said.

He said he didn’t stop and try a slice at Filippo's, but suffice to say he and the other Nokia executives were impressed enough to invest in New Brunswick, although Vice President of Strategy and Technology Operations Severine Siebert declined to say how many millions it will cost the company.

Peter Vetter, President of Nokia Bell Labs Core Research, said New Brunswick also had the right sort of urban vibe that the brainy millennial minds gravitate toward. It also reminded him of his humble beginnings in Belgium.

“I actually started my career in Antwerp and in the developed side of Antwerp is actually an urban environment right at the railroad station,” he said. “It’s a very vibrant environment. You can go downtown and have a coffee. You have immediate access for your commute. And so this is what we expect the millennials and the future generations (will be looking for).”

The reasons are probably immaterial to the leaders of New Brunswick, who have used a $5 billion boon in development projects during Cahill’s tenure to keep municipal taxes flat or with slight increases.

Cahill deflected a question when asked about his leadership and its role in such projects as the HELIX and the nearby Jack and Sheryl Morris Cancer Center, and the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. He said it’s been a matter of working with others who have a vision for what New Brunswick can be.

“Candidly, it starts with the smallest of things and grows from there,” he said. “The beauty of New Brunswick is that there is no idea that becomes silly or too big or something that seems improper. It really is the ability to talk, to exchange ideas and to basically inspire other people and then collaborate with so many people in the private sector, in the health care sector, in the innovation and technology sector. Academia, of course, is one of our strong suits.

“When we put all those people around a table, you can bet great minds will make great things happen,” Cahill added. “I’m just glad that they let me sit at the little kids table next to them.”

Story By: Chuck O'Donnell
Photo Credit: DEVCO