'Milestone' property in Secaucus to be developed by Hartz.

Harmon Cove, the historic 750-acre parcel purchased by Hartz Mountain in 1966, committed its remaining developable 18-acre site as a 339,000 SF warehouse and distribution facility for Corporate Express Office Products, Inc. Corporate Express supplies products and services to large corporations, including office and computer supplies, furniture, forms management, and courier services.

The deal represents, the final fulfillment in the 34-year drive to achieve Leonard Stern's vision of a multi-use complex within easy reach of Manhattan, but offering vastly improved economics and features. Bordered by Route 3 on the north, the Hackensack River on the west, and County Road on the east, Harmon Cove struck Leonard Stern as an ideal location for a mixed-use Development, meeting the needs of companies for whom existing facilities in New York City had become outdated or too costly. Stem purchased the land in 1966 for $10 million, by far the company's largest purchase of real estate to that point, at a time when the land was universally viewed by many to be too difficult to build on and too risky to invest in.

Stern's analysis proved true, as Harmon Cove became perhaps the seminal development in New Jersey's real estate history and Hartz Mountain Indus tries, Inc, has evolved into one of the region's leading developers. Harmon Cove is Hartz Mountain's first mixed-use community and presently contains more than 13 million SF of warehouse/ distribution facilities and office space, 120 outlet stores, 3 hotels, 1,400 luxury condominium apartments in the Harmon Cove Towers, and townhouse condominiums in two side-by-side Hackensack River waterfront developments. The many innovations at Harmon Cove include not just the development of state-of-the-art industrial, office, and residential properties. The outlet mall concept was pioneered at Harmon Cove and it has become a place where people can live, work, shop, and lodge. Meadowlands Hospital is located There, as is Panasonic's U.S. headquarters -- perhaps the deal that put Hartz Mountain on the map as a real estate developer.

"We have reached a significant milestone in our portfolio, but we have a great deal of development in our near future and there will be more milestones to come," said Leonard Stem, founder of Hartz Mountain Industries, Inc. and chairman of its parent, The Hartz Group, Inc.

Harmon Cove was the first of many innovative threshold projects the firm brought to North Jersey and the broader metropolitan area. Most recently, it is credited with rejuvenating N.J's Gold Coast by building Jersey City's first new hotel, the DoubleTree Club Suites in 1998, followed by approximately 850,000 SF of speculative, class "A" waterfront office space at 90 & 70 Hudson St. The firm recently expanded its Sheraton Suites Hotel in its extensive Lincoln Harbor mixed-use development, and it created a new niche in Manhattan boutique hotels with the SoHo Grand Hotel and Tribeca Grand Hotel.

"Panasonic committed to Harmon Cove's One Panasonic Way facility in 1974, when most people perceived Secaucus to be populated by pig farms," said Emanuel Stem, president and chief operating officer of Hartz Mountain Industries, Inc. "They formed the same vision for Harmon Cove that my father Leonard had, and still has and that almost everyone in the real estate industry now shares: with both spurs of the New Jersey Turnpike less than one mile from the site, just 4 1/2 miles between Harmon Cove and Manhattan, with train lines criss-crossing the site and economics far superior to New York, how can you go wrong?"

"Harmon Cove has long been an optimal location for industrial space users like ourselves," said Tim Eanchamp, vice president of logistics for Corporate Express. "The logistical solutions presented by the location and the chance to build a brand-new facility to our specifications was too much to turn down."

Among other prestigious corporations in Harmon Cove are Gucci, MSNBC,

UPS, CBS, UPN-9, Datek Online, Children's Place, and Lantis Eyewear, which recently signed a lease for a 339,000 SF, state-of-the-art industrial building for the 17 acres adjacent to the Corporate Express site. The entire development remains in Hartz Mountain's 35 million SF portfolio of commercial space, with the 35-acre Lantis/Corporate Express site representing Harmon Cove's last developable industrial acreage. Hartz retains more than 200 acres of other land in the metropolitan area for development purposes, including approximately 43 acres at its second mixed-use complex, Harmon Meadow, just two miles east of Harmon Cove on Route 3., that it is marketing for use as office and retail. Hartz Mountain is also marketing 77 Hudson St., a 1.1 million SF site at Colgate Center, the company's third class "A" office development on the waterfront in Jersey City.