The former Connell Corporate Park in Berkeley Heights is in the midst of a $500 million repositioning into a live-work-play destination in the heart of Union County.
Berkeley Heights-based real estate firm Connell Company, the owner of the 185-acre campus, recently reached a milestone toward the repositioning when it officially began leasing the first residential tower on the former office campus.
The 11-story apartment building, known as RT500, consists of 179 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units and is located at 500 District Drive. Units at the complex span between 536 and 1,058 square feet.
The RT500 tower is the first of two planned residential buildings under the same brand. Both towers will feature amenities including a fitness center, game room with a sports simulator, co-working spaces, and a rooftop lounge and deck that includes a pool.
A press release from Connell Company says select retail will be accessible through the building, including Café Exchange, a restaurant with an evening wine bar, and Dogtopia – a year-round boarding, spa and grooming service for dogs.
The campus, now known as The Park, features a 176-room Embassy Suites Hotel and a 112,000-square-foot Lifetime Fitness. At full buildout, it will include over 1.5 million square feet of office space, including flexible workspaces and collaborative lounges, as well as 160,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space.
Jersey Digs reported in March that Connell Company had signed six new retailers at The Park that were slated to open this summer. These include Four Spoons Ice Cream Company, Doner Shack, Café Exchange, Prime IV Hydration & Wellness, Dogtopia and Greatness Wins – an athletic apparel brand.
That announcement came seven years after the real estate firm began repositioning the campus.
A 2021 report from Fast Company says the office campus was built in 1980 and became home to companies including AT&T, AIG and L’Oréal, as well as hundreds of smaller office tenants over the years. That report says work on the redevelopment began in earnest in 2017, but added that executives from Connell saw the Covid-19 pandemic as an affirmation that the office park needed to change.
A report in RE-NJ in May 2025 said Connell invested $100 million to update its office space, which included the addition of hospitality-focused amenities. The report said the update led to 100,000 square feet of new long-term office leases, including asset manager Blackstone and law firm Kennedys.
The RT500 tower is expected to officially open in August.
