New York Jets Headquarters move to New Jersey

Jets to announce naming rights for new HQ in Florham Park

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - The New York Jets on Tuesday will announce a naming rights deal with a New Jersey health care system for the team's new headquarters and practice facility, team officials said. The campus under construction in Florham Park will be called the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center, named for the nonprofit health care system that includes Overlook Hospital in Summit and Morristown Memorial Hospital. The NFL team declined to disclose the amount of the 12-year deal, or the other companies it considered.
New York Jets CEO Woody Johnson said the team is thrilled to call Atlantic Health its partner. "Not only are we creating a competitive advantage for our team by building a first-rate corporate campus to accommodate the needs of our football and business operations and utilizing the best that technology has to offer, we are also partnering with a company that has deep roots in the New Jersey community," Johnson said. The naming rights will be announced Tuesday at a cornerstone dedication ceremony at the site, with New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine scheduled to attend. The Jets are relocating their offices and training facility from Long Island to New Jersey as part of deal to build a new stadium for the team and New York Giants at the Meadowlands. The teams are jointly financing the $1.3 billion stadium and are working on a naming rights deal for that building. The Jets are paying the $75 million construction cost for their training facility. It sits on 27 acres, paid for by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, of which seven acres are used for storm retention and will not be built on. The authority also funded 20 acres for a new practice facility for the Giants, but it did not require extra land for storm retention. The Jets' new 120,000-square-foot building is well under way, with its foundation already in. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore Owings, Merrill, architect of the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center, it will include offices and classrooms, training and medical facilities, locker rooms and an auditorium. The roof on an 84,000-square-foot field house, housing an indoor field of artificial turf, will be high enough for a punter to practice kicks. The sod on the first of three outdoor natural grass fields has been planted. Another outdoor field will be artificial turf. Business operations will move in late summer or early fall of 2008, and the team will begin practicing in Florham Park in 2009. Joseph A. Trunfio, president and CEO of Atlantic Health, said the company is happy to welcome the team as a neighbor. "This location, so close to Morristown Memorial Hospital with its advanced orthopedics, trauma and sports medicine programs, and to Overlook Hospital, home of the Atlantic Neuroscience Institute, makes this new relationship a natural fit with tremendous potential to grow," he said. The team looked at about 40 sites in northern New Jersey before settling on the former Exxon headquarters site in Florham Park, a borough of 12,000 people about 30 miles west of Manhattan. The borough is to receive a payment instead of taxes of about $150,000 annually. The team and the sports authority also plan to give an additional $50,000 annually for parks in the community.