Confectionary Mars Wrigley is set to part ways with its Newark headquarters less than 10 years after setting up shop there. A notice filed with the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) system before July 19 shows that the company is set to lay off 307 employees by the end of October as it consolidates its corporate headquarters in Chicago.
A report in NJ.com says that the confectionery’s corporate presence in Newark dates to the 1940s. Mars Wrigley reportedly invented M&M’s in Brick City in 1941, one year after it set up a factory at 285 Badget Avenue in Clinton Hill. The company then relocated to 200 North 12th Street in the city and remained there until 1958, when it opened a factory in Hackettstown.
The firm’s newest headquarters in the city at 110 Edison Place, on the other hand, dates back to at least 2017. A report in USA Today from December of that year said the firm would bring up to 1,500 jobs to the state, as it had chosen Newark and Hackettstown over Chicago for its international headquarters. That report came one month after the New Jersey Economic Development Authority granted a 10-year $31.5 million tax break for the relocation, which would bring 483 jobs to Newark and 113 new jobs to the state, according to an NJ.com report.
In many ways, Mars Wrigley became a poster child for the prosperity that Mayor Ras Baraka and Governor Chris Christie’s administration were bringing to Newark and the state, as the project secured substantial state and local incentive support. The property’s location at the foot of Prudential Center was also the centerpiece of the 22-acre park known as Mulberry Commons, which replaced several acres of parking.
The entire project would also create a pedestrian walkway connecting the whole area to Newark Penn Station. Jersey Digs reported in September 2023 that city and state officials broke ground on the project, though it remains unclear when it will be completed.
The building at 110 Edison Place was rebranded as Ironside Newark after Edison Properties purchased it in 2014. The building was retrofitted into office and retail space from a 456,000-square-foot train warehouse that was originally built for the Newark Warehouse Company in 1907. The building had a direct connection to the train lines via a bridge over McCarter Highway.
The Newark City Council approved a 30-year tax incentive for the $80 million redevelopment of the building, led by Edison Properties. The firm officially opened the building in 2018, the same year Mars Wrigley agreed to lease a portion of the office space.
Marketing materials from real estate brokerage firm JLL, which is currently marketing the property, show that the office building spans 401,000 square feet. The building is home to Edison Properties, Robinson Miller and Pearlman & Miranda, and had 194,000 square feet of space available prior to Mars Wrigley’s announced departure.
Marketing materials from Ironside indicate that SportsMed, Greyhound, and Provident Bank are among the retail tenants in the building.
Although Mars Wrigley is set to part ways with hundreds of employees later this year, the company’s departure from New Jersey is not even the largest layoff announced this month.
The New Jersey WARN notice system shows that Samsung will lay off 739 workers in Englewood Cliffs and relocate out of the state. Telecom giant Verizon is also laying off 282 workers in Basking Ridge by the end of October.
