An all-but-signed agreement would bring the world headquarters of John Wiley & Sons, a Manhattan-based publishing giant with almost 200 years in the business, to Hoboken as the anchor tenant of a yet-to-be-built office building on the southern waterfront. Wiley & Sons currently houses more than 800 employees in its corporate headquarters on Third Street in midtown Manhattan. The proposed 13-story Hoboken office building, with more than 1 million square feet of office space, would be built by SJP properties on “Block A” of the south waterfront between First and Second streets. Even though representatives at Wiley & Sons insist that the agreement has yet to be finalized, SJP appears to be confident in its ability to snag a major tenant for the proposed building. The company deposited a check for $500,000 in the city’s coffers this week to extend its rights to develop on Block A of the south waterfront. The developer’s rights to build on a vacant lot there had expired last year, but the new deposit extends its rights through June 30. SJP has been trying to lure a firm as an “anchor tenant” for the office building to ensure that a majority of the building’s space would be leased after it is built. The company signed an agreement with the city and the Port Authority to develop the property on July 7, 1998. Although the long search for a tenant had been a source of concern among city officials who worried that SJP might not ever build on the property, Mayor Anthony Russo said Wednesday that the city’s patience had been rewarded. “Unlike some other waterfront developments, this tenant is moving not just an office or back office operations to New Jersey, but their entire corporate headquarters,” he said before the council approved the extension of SJP’s rights to develop the property. Russo pointed to a giant 6-foot by 2-foot mock check that was made out for $500,000 to the city from SJP. “In addition to everything else,” he said, “we now have 500,000 more reasons to celebrate.” Wiley company officials said that the publishing firm would move out of its current space before its lease expires in 2003. “Hoboken is the frontrunner in a number of locations that we are considering, but this is not a done deal yet” said Director of Communications Susan Spilka. “Our number one priority is retaining our highly-skilled employees, and we are also interested in attracting new employees, keeping costs low and being near major transportation services. Hoboken has emerged as the number one contender based on those considerations.” The corporation, with more than $500 million in sales a year, has published works from literary greats such as Herman Melville and Edgar Allan Poe, although Spilka says that in recent years the firm has focused more on medical and science journals, trade books and text books. Numerous travel guides and non-fiction books, ranging from books on parenting to Dino-Trekking: the Ultimate Dinosaur Travel Guide, have also been published by the firm. In the near future, the company plans to invest in value-added web-based materials that can supplement the hard and softback books that they already sell. “Our company is rapidly transforming into digital platforms,” said Spilka. “We have our journals on line. We’ve just put up an electronics encyclopedia and we have integrated learning packages on line.”
Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
