DEVCO's Visionary Leader Paladino Heading to New Jersey Hall of Fame

Chris Paladino, the driving force behind the HELIX, the Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center and other major development projects that have transformed New Brunswick over the past three decades, is heading to the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

The president of the nonprofit New Brunswick Development Corporation (DEVCO) will be joined by former governor Christine Todd Whitman, New York Giants legend Lawrence Taylor, Grammy Award winner SZA and others who have made significant contributions to life in New Jersey and beyond in the newest class of inductees.

The new class of Jersey legends also includes James E. Burke, former CEO of New Brunswick-based Johnson & Johnson; Donald Milford Payne Sr., New Jersey's first African American elected to Congress; and Dr. John J. McMullen, former owner of the New Jersey Devils and Houston Astros.

Since 2008, the New Jersey Hall of Fame has hosted 17 ceremonies for more than 260 notable individuals and groups ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Harriet Tubman to Carl Sagan to Whitney Houston.

Paladino has overseen billions of dollars in development in New Brunswick and beyond since taking the reins at DEVCO in 1994.

Since then, the man who lives by the creed "A city is never finished" has pushed forward a varied array of projects, including the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, the Heldrich Hotel and New Brunswick High School.

The HELIX (New Brunswick Innovation and Technology Hub), a multi-billion-dollar project taking rise across from the city's train station, is perhaps Paladino's crown jewel.

The first phase of the HELIX, known as H-1, is scheduled to open with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting event in September. Meanwhile, work continues on H-2 and H-3 across from the New Brunswick Train Station.

Eventually, about 4,000 people will be working, living, studying and researching at the HELIX each day. Perhaps his ability to foster alliances among strange bedfellows in the public and private sectors was never more evident than with the creation of the 23-story Gateway Transit Village.

In that $145 million project that was completed in 2012, Urban Transit Hub tax credits, New Markets tax credits, New Jersey Department of Transportation funding, Recovery Zone Facility Bonds, Private Equity and New Brunswick Parking Authority Bonds were brought together to create a multipurpose structure that includes resident housing, office space, a parking deck and retail space utilized by Rutgers students, nail technicians, members of the city's Parking Authority, restaurateurs and others.

It's been a long, successful ride for Paladino, a proud Rutgers graduate who initially planned on staying on the job for a short time.

Paladino has often drawn inspiration from innovative thinking and big-picture vision espoused by some of his fellow New Jersey Hall of Famers: Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison. In that sense, he sees himself as an architect of a city that will be enjoyed by generations of residents, not just a builder of buildings.

He embraces New Brunswick's legacy of innovation going back to the day in 1886 that the train carrying James Wood Johnson happened to stop here, and he was struck with the idea to make this the headquarters of what would become Johnson & Johnson.

You could almost imagine Paladino gleefully pulling up a chair as the Johnson Brothers ate lunch and swapped tales with Edison at Fred Kilmer's pharmacy.

"I can't tell you what the chemical name for hydrogen is, but I know there are a lot of smart people who can, and we're going to give them a place to work," Paladino told TAPinto New Brunswick during a 2021 interview.

Story Credit: Chuck O'Donnell
Photo Credit: TAPinto New Brunswick