TINTON FALLS, N.J. -- Data management company CommVault has signed an agreement to acquire a 55-acre tract in Tinton Falls, with plans to build a new headquarters facility. Situated within the shuttered Fort Monmouth, the site is the first major step in the fort's redevelopment. The agreement was signed with the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA), the state agency overseeing redevelopment of the fort, shuttered in 2011 after its operations were relocated to Aberdeen, Md. as part of BRAC.
The final purchase price has not been set, and a number of other details have to be worked out before the sale in finalized. Provisions include that CommVault has to complete the first phase within five years, or FMERA can buy back the site at 95 percent of the final purchase price. Also, CommVault has to create at least 225 new jobs within three years of initial move-in or face a penalty of $3,000 per job.
Plans call for a total of 650,000 sq. ft. of office and R&D space in three phases, including a first phase of 250,000 sq. ft., which will cost an estimated $80 million. A total of 2,500 jobs are projected at full build-out, including 700 to be hired within three years of initial move-in. CommVault now employs 500 at its current headquarters in nearby Oceanport.
"A project of this magnitude on Fort Monmouth and the surrounding area, which lost 5,000 direct jobs at the fort and thousands of supporting jobs when the Army closed the base, will be significant," said FMERA Executive Director Bruce Steadman, in a prepared statement.
Altogether, the former Fort Monmouth encompasses 1,000 acres in three Monmouth County communities. Its former central operations are situated on the main portion of the base in Eatontown, with additional operations in Little Silver and Tinton Falls. The latter portion of the fort includes an 18-hole, once private golf course that is now open to the public.