Bayer HealthCare consolidates, opens new U.S. base

WHIPPANY, N.J. — The maker of Bayer Aspirin and Alka-Seltzer has located its new U.S. headquarters here, a short drive from Gov. Chris Christie's house.

And New Jersey's governor joined state and local officials Wednesday for the ceremonial ribbon-cutting at Bayer HealthCare's new campus.

STORY: Bausch + Lomb moving HQ to N.J. from N.Y.

"When I was asked to be here this morning, it was an easy yes," Christie said. "And not just because it's 20 minutes from my house although that didn't hurt."

Christie touted the ribbon-cutting as an example of government working with business to retain good jobs, a decision for Bayer that was made easier because of more than $35.1 million in business incentive grants to keep the international drugmaker not only in the Garden State but in Morris County.

In turn, Bayer invested $250 million into its new 700,000-square-foot facility here that originally served as a base for Bell Labs. It took about a year for the company to gut two campus buildings, connect them with a five-story glass atrium and transform them into a modern workplace for 2,400 workers.

Those workers, gathered from Bayer sites in Morris Township, Montville and Wayne, N.J.; and Tarrytown, N.Y., began moving July 1 into their new offices about 30 miles east of New York City.

The new building, which has a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification pending from the U.S. Green Building Council, features an open design that includes a training center, medical suite, mother's room, company store, a cafe with indoor and outdoor dining and more than 2 miles of fitness paths inside and outside the building.

A floating staircase in Bayer HealthCare's U.S. headquarters in Whippany, N.J., goes up to ! an open area.(Photo: Bob Karp, (Morris County, N.J.) Daily Record)

"There's only a few concrete walls left from what used to be here," said Marjin Dekkers, chairman of the Bayer AG Group, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary.

Calling it one of the most impressive new buildings he has seen in New Jersey, Christie said, "I think it represents the corporate culture in the design, and the type of corporate culture that we want across this country and around the world. The openness, a collaboration of bringing a people together, something that our country needs more right now than ever before.

"So maybe you can set an example for those people in Washington," he said.