(Video by Andre Malok; photos courtesy of Bell Works unless otherwise noted)

By Jessica Remo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

In the mid-2000s, the once-treasured Bell Labs building in Holmdel appeared to be another real estate white elephant — too giant and expensive to maintain, unsellable and, it seemed, bound to be demolished.

The 2-million-square-foot building on 472 acres had gone from decades as a center for major scientific developments (it housed seven Nobel Prize winners) to one of the state's most endangered historic spaces.

"How much longer can any of these postwar corporate centers — perfect embodiments of a moment in history when cities began to feel pestilential, when suburban flight grew easier on the interstates and when faith in America's corporate power was unshakable — maintain the architecture and landscaping that made them such landmarks?" asked the New York Times, in a story about Bell Labs and others.

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View inside the building in July 2008 after it closed a year earlier. (Tony Kurdzuk / The Star-Ledger)

Enter Ralph Zucker.

The ambitious developer proposed a new vision of a "work, live, play" office campus, with tons of hip amenities in addition to the office tenants, a thriving hub of activity, also open to the public — the antithesis of a boring office building.

Most of his peers told him it was a giant mistake when he bought the building for $27 million in 2013 after five years of negotiations.

Now?

"We went from insane to genius in about six months," Zucker, 56, says with a smile while giving a tour inside.

Just weeks ago, Architectural Digest dubbed it the most iconic building in New Jersey. And in February, Holmdel granted approval for a hotel to be built on the building's roof.

Here, a look at the new life that's sprung inside the space now called Bell Works.

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The vision: A 'metroburb'

"The suburban office is really a mind-numbing place usually," Zucker says. "You come to your office in the morning. You sort of check your life at the door. You work. You go home. There’s not a lot going on where you are."

He coined the term "metroburb," "a metropolis in suburbia" — essentially a touch of urban life, with all of the things you might see on a city street (shops, dining, things to do). But here. In an office building. In Holmdel, New Jersey.

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The busy ground floor

The ground floor is where Zucker's mixed-use vision comes to life.

Around noon, the main atrium buzzes as workers come down from their offices for lunch or to hang in the atrium. Sometimes there's an exercise class on the turf field. Sometimes someone takes to the grand piano in the lobby to play a tune.

The building was designed by world-renowned modernist architect Eero Saarinen (more on this later), but when Zucker bought it, its main atrium — what he calls the "pedestrian piazza" — had been cannibalized by desks and cubicles.

Now it's been reopened, a 100,000-square-foot open space, the size of three football fields laid end to end.

"It was designed to be collaborative," Zucker says. "It’s an inspirational place. You bump into people. You meet people. The office has been inverted inside out."

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There's a fancy coffee shop

Booskerdoo Coffee & Bakery Co., a favorite roastery on the Jersey Shore, has opened an outpost.

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An indoor lawn

The turf field at one end of the atrium is often used for athletic endeavors like this yoga class.

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Communal dining space

The dining area comes to life around lunchtime. New dining options will soon open on the right side. A patio extends from the doors in the back.

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This mod hangout area

This space fits perfectly in the mid-century digs, with angular lines and red and marigold hues. The sofas, known as the "Tubes," were designed for Bell Works by Ron Arad and were featured in the New York Times.

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(Video by Patti Capone | NJ Advance Media)

A food hall, opening this summer

Bell Market, a food hall helmed by restaurant chef Richard J. Corbo and sommelier Chantelle Corbo of RBC Hospitality Group, will house five distinct restaurant concepts.

The 6,000-square-foot space will include: Corbo & Sons - wood-fired Italian fare with an emphasis on pizzas and freshly milled whole grains

Bubz Deli - NY-style deli classics

Jozu - sushi, ramen and robata

Broadfork - a greens-and-grains concept using hyperlocal produce

Honeybell - a bakeshop offering both sweet and savory breads, pastries and viennoiserie

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A new-age 'downtown'

Zucker hopes Bell Works will also serve as a sort of "downtown" for 17,000-resident town that lacks one.

It's open to the public and located just minutes from the Garden State Parkway and an NJ Transit stop.

RBC Hospitality Group (the folks behind the dining hall) also run a once-a-week bar pop-up/happy hour on Wednesdays in the atrium from 4 to 8 p.m.

And the Asbury Park farmer's market, Asbury Fresh, is also coming to Bell Works every Wednesday from 2 to 6 p.m. from May 30 through Sept. 9.

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The town library has even moved inside

Last year, Bell Works celebrated the opening of the Holmdel Township Library and Learning Center, which also offers educational programs and services and a museum dedicated to the building's history.

Adjacent to the library, a newly formed Holmdel Montessori School will open soon.

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There's ample event space

The atrium makes an impressive space for a party, like the "Alice in Wonderland"-themed Zucker Family Foundation gala in March 2017 that was a fundraiser for the Holmdel Library and its new home at Bell Works.

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The Central Jersey Technology Job Fair brought out a crowd last week.

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Light saber battle, anyone?

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The site has even hosted weddings, utilizing the outdoor patio just beyond the food hall.

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And there's lush scenery outside

The Bell Works campus is wrapped in greenery, with ponds, gardens and walking paths — all believed to help stimulate the brains of the scientists once working there.

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How it all began

In 1957, Bell hired modernist architect Eero Saarinen to design a modern building for its research lab. The idea was for a sleeker design than the company's Colonial Revival-style building in Murray Hill.

Saarinen was famous for designs such as the St. Louis Gateway Arch, the TWA Terminal at JFK airport and iconic furnishings like the tulip chair, which is still popular today.

An architecture magazine once dubbed Bell Labs "the biggest mirror ever" because of its giant facade of mirrored glass and steel.

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A building of inventions

An application to include Bell Labs in the National Register of Historic Places explains the thinking behind the new space, saying the 1950s and '60s marked "an era of popular interest in scientific discovery," where corporations often hired researchers from academic institutions in order to make technological advancements.

It reads: "Bell Laboratories hoped to woo the best of these employees with a commodity of its own: a hub of commercial, technological and scientific activity and innovation all under one impressively-conceived roof."

In its 40-plus-year history as the research headquarters for Bell Labs, Lucent and Alcatel-Lucent, the building housed seven Nobel Prize winners, who conceived theories for the laser, the Big Bang theory, cellular technology, the transistor, the internet and more. (A 60-foot transistor sculpture pays homage at the campus entrance.)

Researchers — at one time there were more than 5,000 employees here — made innovations in cellphones, telecommunication satellites and fiber optics. They also invented the touch-tone phone.

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The ambitious redevelopment project begins. Photo taken on June 27, 2014. (David Gard/The Star-Ledger)

Vacant and facing demolition

But the very technology researchers developed at Bell Labs meant there was less need for physical offices, foretelling the demise of such giant corporate spaces.

"Bell Labs' focus on telecommunications essentially made remote work possible, and more and more employees opted to do so until the sprawling building was mostly empty," said Fast Company, calling Bell Labs the Google of its day.

After four decades — and following the ordered breakup of the Bell System monopoly in 1982 — Bell eventually became AT&T, then Lucent and Alcatel-Lucent, shrinking smaller and smaller in terms of office needs. The maintenance costs of the voluminous space were too high, and in 2007, Bell Labs Holmdel went up for sale.

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Convincing residents

To help sell residents on his vision, Zucker held a "town center for a night" at Bell Labs in Sept. 2009, where residents could experience a sort of pop-up version of what the "metroburb" would look like.

His initial plan included 700 town houses on the property, but residents balked, concerned about what that would mean for Holmdel and its school systems.

Those town houses were scrapped, and instead a section of the property was sold to Toll Brothers, which is building both an age-restricted townhome community and 40 single-family homes with price tags in the millions.

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What they renovated

The total project cost was about $200 million. (Zucker had an investor in Jozef Straus, a retired CEO and former physicist who frequently visited Bell Labs to give seminars to researchers.)

The most visible change was swapping the atrium-facing walls of the offices from concrete to glass.

"We let the light in," Zucker says. "We put in close to five miles of glass."

The building is also greener: Each pane of its signature glass roof has been replaced with photovoltaic panels that generate a percentage of the building's energy, and the heating and cooling systems have been revamped to be more energy efficient.

Several interior walls and spaces were adjusted to accommodate larger tenants.

Yet when you walk in, the building is recognizable as exactly what it was. And there are subtle signs of the past — like in the railings where ashtrays are now hidden under a cover.

Alexander Gorlin was the architect on the project.

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From a single tenant to nearly full

Zucker's first lease was signed in 2014, a 1,200-square-foot office for a realtor — that in a 2-million-square-foot building.

"I signed my life away," he says, "because I committed to keeping that one office heated and cooled and serviced and everything for five years, and we didn't know if we'd sign another lease. My heart was pounding in my chest."

Zucker looked to his real estate broker, Jeff Garibaldi, and asked a question: "Am I crazy?"

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But soon there were more leases to sign. An anchor tenant, iCIMS, which does recruitment and human resources tech, took more than 350,000 square feet, including its own conference center.

Other tenants include:

WorkWave, a cloud-based business management and fleet management solutions company

Guardian Life Insurance

Santander Bank

International Flavors & Fragrances

Acacia Communications, an optical transmissions manufacturer

Jersey Central Power & Light

MetTel, a New York City-based telecommunications firm

McCann Systems LLC, a national audiovisual company

NVIDIA Corporation, a multi-platform technology firm

Spirent Communications, an international telecommunications firm

Suttons International, an international logistics company

There are also individual desks in a co-working space and "ready-to-wear" offices that come predesigned and furnished.

Spaces range from 1,200 square feet to 350,000 square feet. Only about 20 percent of the building is currently vacant, but most of those spaces are also under negotiation, Zucker says.

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What employees think

In the countless articles about Bell Works, the comments sections are full of folks saying they used to work in the building or their parents did or "I met my wife here."

The building is chockfull of tech companies, a fitting return to its original purpose as a center for science and innovation.

Colin Day, CEO of iCIMS, says he started his career hiring technologists for Bell Labs. Now, as an anchor tenant, he's come full circle.

"It’s awesome to be here," Day says. "Our employees love it. Everyone says there's just an energy here."

Zucker hopes Bell Works can serve as a road map for other outdated office spaces in a state awash with them by serving as tangible proof that city-like allure can keep millennials and others from fleeing the suburbs.

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And, coming soon, a rooftop hotel

In February, Somerset Development received approvals from Holmdel to build a 200-unit hotel on the Bell Works roof. They're currently reviewing proposals.

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Somerset Development plans to build the hotel on the perimeter of Bell Works’ rooftop, preserving the skylight.

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Also coming soon

More ground-floor tenants are on the way, including Hummus & Pita Co., a florist, a jeweler, a convenience store, a salon, a bank, a dentist and a home goods store.

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What Holmdel's mayor thinks

"The reaction now has been overwhelmingly positive," says Holmdel Mayor Tom Critelli. "This is kind of like a new-age town center."

Critelli credits "a tremendous partnership" between Holmdel and Zucker to bring the campus back to life.

"We want to create jobs and stimulate the local ecomony, and thanks to Ralph's efforts, it seems like Bell Works is doing just that," he says.

In its heyday, Bell Labs accounted for 20 percent of the town's total tax revenue. This year, between PILOT payments and municipal taxes, the building produces $522,422 in revenue for Holmdel.

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Developer Ralph Zucker smiles for the camera. (Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media)

How Zucker feels now

As Zucker gives a tour of the building, he's exuberant. He's lit up, talking a mile a minute, beaming with pride. He remembers driving up to the building in the early days and seeing the parking lot had just one car — the security guard's. Now, the lot is filling up.

Is Bell Works the coolest office building in the state?

"I think so," says the admittedly biased Zucker. "There's a tremendous vibe. It's tangible. The companies are able to attract top talent. People who live in New Jersey can work close to home and not have to cross a river. And they are absolutely enamored with where they are working."

And how does it feel to see his vision come to life a little more each day?

"I get a flutter in my heart every time I walk in," Zucker says. "It's been 10 years of work. You can do whatever you want, you can build it, but if they don’t come it’s worthless. As you can see, New Jersey is voting with its feet."

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Read more

Bell Labs site's new owner outlines plans for next 'experiment' in Holmdel

Another 200 workers to move into historic Bell Labs building

Tech company to become largest employer at former Bell Labs site

N.J. Bell Labs researchers receive lifetime achievement for work on optic fiber

Hundreds of new workers to move into historic Bell Labs building

Looking back: Bell Labs duo awarded Nobel Prize

50 years later: celebrating the cosmic discovery that earned two New Jersey physicists the Nobel Prize



'The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation:' A book review

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Jessica Remo may be reached at jremo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessicaRemoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.