The Trenton Times published the following article on March 7, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Schools Development Authority move sparks worry of former State Street building going unoccupied

By Erin Duffy/The Times of Trenton 
on March 07, 2013 at 8:30 AM

TRENTON —The state Schools Development Authority will move all its Trenton offices and staff to the Liberty Commons building at 32 E. Front St. by the end of the year, filling space soon to be vacated by Wells Fargo.

The SDA board voted yesterday to move forward with obtaining a new lease at Liberty Commons, where the school construction agency already occupies two floors.

It’s good news for Matrix Development Group, the owner of Liberty Commons, as it braces for the departure this summer of Wells Fargo, which moved its regional headquarters to the building in 2006.

But the SDA move could leave a gaping vacancy at its current home at 1 W. State St., a prominent bank building at the corner with Warren Street, according to the owner, longtime Trenton developer Ronald Berman.

Berman spoke briefly at the meeting to implore the SDA to stay put.

The state agency rents six floors, 68,000 of the building’s 78,000 square feet, sharing it with a Wells Fargo branch on the first floor.

Leases for both the SDA and Wells Fargo expire at the end of the year.

“If you leave to go a couple blocks somewhere else it’s normally not such a big deal, but in this instance it’s very clear because of the economy and where we are in the city of Trenton, this building will be quite vacant and it will not be preserved,” Berman said. “The question of preserving the facility is an important one.”

Preservation NJ and the Trenton Historical Society also urged the SDA to stay, emphasizing the building’s historical significance.

Built in 1930, the bank sits at a spot called the “corner historic,” where Congress once met and George Washington penned his “Letters to the Ladies of Trenton” on the way to his presidential inauguration, Trenton Historical Society president Helen Shannon wrote in a letter to SDA.

SDA CEO Marc Larkins said the authority needed to consolidate its offices in one place after staff reductions and to pursue lease agreements that would make the most fiscal sense for the state. The Liberty Commons building is also newer and more efficient, he said.

Larkins said he understood the concerns of Berman and local preservationists, but said the SDA was not deserting Trenton and would save the state $7 million in rent over the next 10 years.

“This is not, we’re leaving Trenton. We’re moving right around the corner,” he said. “To the extent of the occupancy issues, if there were going to be vacancies, it would occur in one building or another.”

Contact Erin Duffy at (609) 989-5723 or eduffy@njtimes.com.