A 207-acre industrial property with 25 buildings on it at 401 N. Middletown Road in Pearl River is in the process of being rebranded and repositioned while also being upgraded to become a regular site for movie and television production.
Originally a 240-acre property owned by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer became the landowner in 2009 when it acquired Wyeth. In 2015, Pfizer sold the 207 acres and 25 buildings it wasn”™t going to continue using to Industrial Realty Group LLC (IRG), which is headquartered in Los Angeles. Pfizer continues to own 33 acres and occupies about 850,000 square feet of building space at the Pearl River campus.
IRG has a portfolio of more 100 million square feet of rentable space across more than 150 properties in 28 states that it handles through affiliated partnerships and limited liability companies. It has renamed the Pearl River property as Hudson Valley iCampus and brought in real estate veteran Jamie Schwartz as the president of the site.
Before joining IRG, Schwartz served for 18 years as executive vice president of GHP Office Realty LLC in White Plains. He also is well known in Westchester real estate circles from the time he spent with Robert Martin Company.
Schwartz told the Business Journal that the campus rebranding is designed in part to attract additional tenants in the pharmaceutical industry and related life sciences researchers. Current tenants include such names as Sanofi US Services Inc., Auro Vaccines LLC, RK Pharma Inc., and Iris Biogen Corp.
In examining additional options for using undeveloped portions of the site along with the existing buildings, the spotlight swung to film and television. A number of films and TV series have been shot on the property, including the Spike Lee film “BlacKkKlansman” and TV shows “Law & Order: SVU,” “Orange Is the New Black,” “Manifest,” and “FBI: Most Wanted.”
“I”™m actually very interested in doing a soundstage here,” Schwartz said. “There is a flourishing business here right now and the actress Sissy Spacek is on the campus today, I heard. There”™s a show called ”˜Three Women”™ being filmed here today.
“This location has been recognized,” he added. “It”™s within the tax-break 30-mile radius of New York City.”
Schwartz said that he wants to position the property as a regular site for film and TV production, rather than just being used occasionally as a remote location.
“Besides just having a real permanent soundstage, which could be two stages in smaller buildings, there are streets here that look like streets anywhere,” he said. “They filmed a car chase scene here about month ago. I think it”™s a really great opportunity.
This is a self-contained campus so you”™re not shutting down streets,” Schwartz continued. “It could be a burgeoning opportunity.”
Schwartz said that he sees an ongoing demand for flex space, warehouse and distribution facilities.
“There”™s not a lot of warehouse space available here right now but there is a very large building that does have 14-foot clear spans that used to be a drug manufacturing building,” he noted. “It”™s got 35 loading docks so we are marking that for some type of warehouse storage. There are development opportunities here. There are parcels that could hold up to 180,000-square-foot warehouse-use buildings.”
Schwartz did not see mixed-use expansion, which would involve commercial and residential uses side by side, in the near future. “I think my appetite to do a residential development is low right now.”
He said that one feature of the campus that is attractive to the pharmaceutical industry and laboratory users is a central utility plant that is rated to generate 23 megawatts of electricity. He added that the property will be looking at adding solar-generating capability.
“I do see this campus becoming the pride of Pearl River,” he said. “I”™ve been working with the local governments and we”™re all aligned to try to make this a very successful project for all the stakeholders involved — including the ownership, the tenants, the governments — (and) bringing more employees here to possibly buy homes, to create more ratables for the different towns, and also more patronage for the local merchants.
“A mile down the road is Nanuet (and) the Nanuet mall,” Schwartz said. “There”™s a bunch of shopping and hotels and downtown Pearl River is a great place. We just have to let people know it”™s here.”
