Update: Thanks to PJ for providing this letter from Re-Developer PREI
Dear Paul,
Thank you for your comments and your interest in the future of the Lucent
facility in Holmdel, New Jersey. Preferred Real Estate Investments is
committed to listening to community voices and collaborating with local
residents and municipalities. Like you, we have great respect for the vast
technological innovations developed at the Holmdel site and the historic
significance of the property.
We are extremely sensitive to preserving this vast heritage. It was, in
fact, the rich history, pastoral beauty and legacy of invention that first
attracted us, and is most important to us moving forward. In this spirit, we
must also serve the needs of the township to ensure the success of our
redevelopment efforts. A museum or similar use of the existing structure
will not achieve this goal.
Bell Labs was about looking forward. We wish to continue this
forward-thinking tradition, embodied by the countless inventors and Nobel
laureates who passed through Holmdel, the architect Eero Saarinen, and the
residents of this beautiful town. We pledge to do more than merely erect a
plaque to past achievements; we will save as much of the building as
possible, and incorporate a gallery space that pays tribute to both the
building architecture and the technological innovations created within.
We believe the best way to honor the past is to bring commerce back to the
site ‹ to repurpose the existing infrastructure for the modern age, while
preserving the site layout and landscape design. Preferred is not in the
business of erecting shopping malls or strip centers; we are commercial
redevelopers, we take our business very seriously, and we take the needs of
the communities in which we develop with equal sincerity.
……………….
Jon A. Bjornson
Director of Communications
Preferred Real Estate Investments, Inc.
(emphasis added)
Artwork: I Swear, Michael Miller (Dimensional Collage in Shadow Box 2003)
