The planning board for the city of New Brunswick recently agreed to approve a site plan for the third and last phase of the Helix redevelopment at the site of the former Ferren Mall.
Officials and members of the redevelopment team from the New Brunswick Development Corporation, also known as DevCo, met in December to deliberate on the merits of the proposed building, which will span 39 stories and more than half a million square feet.
Attorneys representing DevCo said the new building will include multifamily and student housing units. The first seven floors of the structure will consist of office space intended for the Middlesex County government, according to the attorneys, while floors 8-39 will consist of 265 apartments and 31 student housing units.
The project site comprises five parcels at 57, 65, 69, 71, and 73 Paterson Street, which will be demolished and subdivided into 2 new parcels, each fronting Kirkpatrick and Paterson streets. The building itself will have a footprint exceeding 30,000 square feet, which is somewhat smaller than the footprint of the H1 (41,000 square feet) and H2 (approximately 40,000 square feet).
The city’s planning board gave DevCo President Chris Paladino the chance to not only provide a brief presentation about the project, but to answer questions posed by the attendees during the one-hour meeting. He said that the project will span 563,000 square feet and represents an investment of up to $468 million.
Although the meeting on December 8 was largely uneventful, city officials and representatives from DevCo took a 5-minute break after half an hour of deliberation after students from Rutgers University interrupted the meeting and accused Paladino and city officials of collaborating with the state of Israel. The students said that the addition of a satellite campus of Tel Aviv University to the Helix project meant that city officials were complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Later in the meeting, during the public comment section, another individual who submitted a public comment also raised concerns about the use of the office space in the proposed building. Specifically, he asked the attorneys working on behalf of DevCo about how certain of a commitment the Middlesex County government had made to relocate.
Thomas F. Kelso, an attorney representing DevCo, clarified that the county has made no formal commitment, but there is an expectation that it will occupy part of the building’s office space. Kelso is also listed as an attorney for the Middlesex County government on the county’s website.
Paladino added that there is pressing demand for courtroom space in the county.
Officials voted unanimously to approve the final site plan, officially greenlighting the third and final phase of the project, which has been more than 10 years in the making.
Jersey Digs reported in April 2025 that the state Economic Development Agency agreed to provide $104 million in gap financing for phase II of the Helix development. That tower will serve as the new home for Nokia Bell Labs, which will occupy 370,000 square feet.
That award from the EDA came nine months after the first phase of the project was topped out in September 2024. That phase, which spans more than 560,000 square feet, will be ready for occupancy later this year, according to Kelso.
Officials from DevCo did not return a request for comment from Jersey Digs.
