By Dilan Mehta for The Montgomery News | July 23, 2026
In 1980, a company widely called “the first independent software vendor,” Applied Data Research, built its headquarters at 23 Orchard Road in Skillman.
The mall-sized corporate campus at 23 Orchard is primarily empty. It’s located at the corner of Rt 206 and Orchard Rd in Skillman.
By the time the campus had grown into a 234,000-sq-ft, 44-acre office property, it had become a critical part of Montgomery’s business identity.
Later, Johnson & Johnson filled its halls. Today, those halls are mostly empty.
The Montgomery Innovation Hub was established in 2022 to revitalize the struggling corporate center, which had been declining for years. By 2025, the building was 75.64% vacant.
Montgomery High School Student Dilan Mehta
The property itself is extremely impressive. It’s a sprawling tech and innovation complex with a fitness and yoga studio, full-service cafe, indoor gardens and atrium, and recreation room. It’s also 40% solar-powered.
But that’s part of the problem. The amenities at 23 Orchard were designed for a massive corporate tenant. When J&J left, those amenities became expensive overhead with nobody to use them.
A startup with five people doesn’t need a full-service cafe. They need affordable rent, flexible leases, and shared space with similar ambitious innovators.
This is not a failure, but a story of change. If Montgomery can pull off one more reinvention, the hub promises to be a thriving center for R&D, life sciences, biotech startups, and flexible coworking, all with a connection to Princeton and the Einstein Alley corridor.
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VentureX is already here. Healios Labs is already here. 1435 Capital, one of the largest venture capital firms in New Jersey, is already here.
As someone who aspires to entrepreneurship, this space is important to the young people of Montgomery. It represents the mentorship, collaboration, and community that turn ideas into companies.
On March 23, 2026, Montgomery designated 23 Orchard as a redevelopment area. In April, Township Administrator Lori Savron proposed building luxury apartments nearby to finance the hub’s renovation, since the site proved ineligible for outside funding.
However, former Mayor Devra Keenan warned that the apartments could be built without dedicating a meaningful share of the resulting revenue to the existing complex. Meanwhile, Planning Board member Paul Blodgett questioned whether apartment revenue would be enough to fund the necessary improvements.
The apartment funding model isn’t wrong; it might be the only path. But the community needs public accountability to make sure the hub comes first, not last.
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Before any redevelopment plan is approved, the community should demand clear, contractual milestones that tie the hub’s improvement to the apartments’ construction, and not just a promise.
Those improvements are practical, not cosmetic: Converting large office spaces into affordable units for startups, adding the specialized lab infrastructure biotech firms require, and lowering rents through PILOT tax incentives.
But beyond that, what makes an innovation hub work isn’t its building; it’s its culture. 1435 Capital regularly hosts events for high school and college students. Healios Labs chose this space for its proximity to Princeton. The bones of a vibrant startup community exist. It just needs municipal support to thrive.
For nearly half a century, 23 Orchard has adapted to changing economic realities. This may be its most important reinvention yet.
Dilan Mehta is a student at Montgomery High School.
