Door's Wide Open For Business As NJ Innovation Hub Opens In New Brunswick

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Tuesday was one of those bright, first mornings of fall: The air was crisp, leaves crunched underfoot and the atmosphere in the heart of New Brunswick city center was heady with networking — and making money.

Tuesday was the grand opening of the New Jersey Innovation Hub, a 12-story building just recently constructed at 20 French Street, right across from the New Brunswick train station.

The Innovation Hub was created by the New Brunswick Development Corporation (DEVCO), and the idea is to bring start-up companies together with researchers from Rutgers University, pharmaceutical giants like Johnson & Johnson and others, plus investors and government officials.

Portal Innovations, a venture development company, is the one running the show at the Innovation Hub. On Tuesday, Portal CEO John Flavin said the Hub is an incubator for small businesses and bio-tech, similar to the way the Stone Pony was an incubator for a young Bruce Springsteen.

"I mean, come on, think about the innovation that's happened here (in New Jersey); brothers that started a company called Johnson & Johnson well over 100 years ago ... Einstein hung out in Princeton, Edison in Menlo Park developing the first industrial lab," said Flavin. "There was a young entrepreneur named Bruce that got his start in an incubator called the Stone Pony in Asbury Park ... and eventually his voice was heard about the world. When you look around you today, that's who are. We're the Stone Pony of bio-tech."

"We look forward to the breakthroughs that will emerge from this community," he said.

A total of 21 tenants have been renting space at the Innovation Hub since the building opened this summer. The list of all 21 tenants is here; they are mostly small start-ups in biotech, pharmaceutical, AI and medical research. The Hub is actively seeking more tenants to rent its labs and offices.

Thrive Genetics is one of those companies; Thrive does genetic-based addiction detection and treatment. Its co-founder and CEO, James Piacentino, was at the grand opening party Tuesday; he said he chose to relocate the company from Philadelphia to the Innovation Hub specifically so he could work with Rutgers on its ground-breaking scientific research in addiction.

"Every university has brilliant technology, sitting there, waiting. But no one is really connecting the dots between that genius and the commercial ability to take it to scale," he said. "Whether it's cancer research, Parkinsons research, it's at a university. So how do we take it from there out to the commercial market? You need entrepreneurial people to go in there and pull that out. That's where the magic happens."

He did not want to disclose his monthly rent, but he said that companies such as his that rent space at the Innovation Hub are eligible for Angel tax credits provided by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) (learn more here). Through the Angel tax credit program, companies receive a tax credit of up to 40 percent of their investment, as long as they are in what the state determines is "an emerging technology market." Companies like his also benefit from New Jersey's Evergreen Fund, another program run by the NJEDA that gives corporate tax credits to venture capitalists that invest in start ups. Learn more about NJ's Evergreen fund here: njeda.gov/evergreen/

Johnson & Johnnson has office space at the Innovation Hub, and Johnson & Johnson CEO Joaquin Duato was at the grand opening Tuesday, as was Rutgers President William Tate, Congressman Frank Pallone, Kellie (Mitra) Doucette, chief operating officer for Gov. Mikie Sherrill, plus high-ranking employees from RWJBarnabas Health and Hackensack Meridian Health (Jose Lozano, Hackensack Meridian Health's chief growth officer and Michael Prilutsky, an executive vice president at RWJBarnabas).

When the Innovation Hub was first introduced, Princeton University was mentioned as a partner that would share research space there, but this Patch reporter did not see anyone from Princeton at Tuesday's grand opening.

"Think about all Rutgers does. Think about all Princeton does ... Nowhere else will have such research power under one roof," Gov. Phil Murphy said in 2021. Princeton was even included in these early renderings of what the Hub would look like.

The Innovation Hub is part of what's being planned as the Health and Life Sciences Exchange (HELIX), three buildings in the heart of New Brunswick. The Innovation Hub is located in building one; Nokia Bell Labs plans to leave their Berkeley Heights headquarters and relocate to building two in 2028 and the third building will be apartments.

The idea is the HELIX will attract businesses, investors and researchers from up and down the Northeast, and across the word. Israel's Tel Aviv University plans to open a satellite campus there.

"HELIX will house many of the world’s most brilliant minds, projects and organizations," proclaimed a press release from New Brunswick DEVCO. "Located at the midpoint of the Northeast Corridor in New Brunswick, HELIX is asserting and expanding New Jersey’s leadership position in the global innovation economy."

Related: Amazon Will Run AI, Cloud Computing From New Brunswick HELIX (Oct. 2)

Johnson & Johnson Joins New Brunswick HELIX Tech/Science Campus (May 2026)

Tel Aviv University The Newest Tenant At Rutgers' Tech Hub (2021)