Chris Paladino and New Brunswick Development Corp. — DEVCO — served as the master developer of the incredible Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center in New Brunswick, which opened earlier this year to well-deserved acclaim.
And Paladino and DEVCO are leading the effort to transform the New Brunswick train station from an outdated outpost to a modern transportation hub that anchors one of the most important cities and hubs for higher education and commerce in the state.
Both projects are transformative. Amazingly, neither is the reason that Paladino occupies the top spot on the first BINJE’S BEST: Commercial Real Estate Leaders 2025 list.
Both of these efforts bookend what figures to be his greatest achievement in a city he has been redeveloping for a generation:
The HELIX innovation district — a project so big it’s hard to name
its defining feature.
The HELIX — short for the Health & Life Science Exchange —
will include the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
and an innovation hub (which will offer premier workspaces
and laboratories for both startups and established companies). And that’s just in the H1 building, which is scheduled to open next spring.
H2, which just broke ground, will serve as the new global headquarters for Nokia Bell Labs.
And H3, which is still awaiting word on an ASPIRE grant from the state, will offer a combination of office and lab space beneath one of largest multifamily complexes in the state, one that will house medical students and researchers.
It’s a transformative project for the state.
And the reason Chris Paladino is No. 1 on our inaugural list.
