By Rikki Massand l June 30, 2025
Set on 44 acres at the corner of Route 206 and Orchard Road in Skillman, a three-story 234,000-square-foot office building has become a growing startup space for regional biotech firms.
One of the new tenants is Mahender Gorrai, a 25-year resident of Skillman and an IT professional, who ventured out of his comfort zone and into a new business. He opened an office hotel, Venture X, where community members may reserve office space for whatever suits the type of work they need to do.
The office complex known as 23 Orchard at the corner of Route 206 and Orchard Road in Skillman.
The size of a shopping mall, the complex offers the equivalent of four American football fields of office and lab space. It was has a fitness center, four loading docks, a cafe, and an indoor game room with pingpong.
At Venture X, folks may lease a space on a daily basis, or for months to years at a time. Given the increased dependency on remote working, the office hotel offers access to conference rooms, storage space, high speed Internet, and, perhaps most important — camaraderie.
Mahender Gorrai of Skillman owns Venture X , located at 23 Orchard Road.
“We make clients comfortable in clean, neat workspaces with high-end furniture and sit-stand desks for better productivity,” Gorrai told The Montgomery News.
Venture X’s corporate website details the added value of coworking space to remove distractions of a busy home-office life, constant interruptions like Amazon or Ring doorbells, telemarketing, sirens and horns from passing vehicles and the most-dreaded annoyance – the roar of landscaping, especially gas leaf blowers.
Venture X’s ground floor location at 23 Orchard Road, Suite 210, opened in December 2024. It brings a coworking community and hub to Montgomery that is generating a buzz, especially with the tech and business community, reverberating across circles in central New Jersey.
From Gorrai’s decades of experience in IT, the concept of shared services was a philosophy and basis for bringing Venture X into Montgomery’s former Johnson & Johnson office hub. Prior to J&J, 23 Orchard was home to Applied Data Research, Inc. (ADR), was a large software vendor from the 1960s until the mid-1980s. ADR is often described as "the first independent software vendor.
Circled in red is the proposed location for a 180-unit, 3-story apartment building by the Route 206-Orchard Road traffic light. The existing office complex and parking lot are at the bottom left of the image.
Applied Data Research (ADR), a computer software firm, completed construction of 23 Orchard as its new corporate head in 1980. At that time, it was 67,000-square foot on 40 acres. The building was later expanded to 234,000 square feet and housed several of divisions of Johnson & Johnson. Overtime, the office complex has had multiple owners, and remains largely empty.
Many of Montgomery's large corporate clients of have either left town, or will be moving out soon. Part of the reason the companies moved to Montgomery was a proposed highway that never came to fruition. In the 1980s, the Township Committee shunned large-scale industrial growth when it passed a resolution expressing its opposition to the proposal for a toll-road, Interstate 95, to run through the township. The proposed highway attracted multiple companies, including Convatec and Johnson & Johnson, to Montgomery Township. These companies have either left town, or are leaving. J&J sold its Grandview site to Kenvue, which separated from J&J in 2023 to become a fully independent company. Kenvue is moving to Summit the end of this year.
>>Click to read related story: posted on June 17, 2025
Venture X Floor Plan. Yellow spaces are enclosed offices, pink is a conference room, white are desks — all available for rent at 23 Orchard in Skillman.
Companies were already moving to an "office-hoteling" model of work. Merck, for example, sold its corporate HQ in Whitehouse Station, and began allowing employees to work from home, and to book company office space and meeting rooms as-needed. COVID hastened the transition.
Gorrai of Venture X opened his new company for folks who need a quiet, private space to work while having access to office amenities, and to have a social life and work colleagues.
“I worked in NYC, and with companies like Veritas Technologies [handling multi-cloud data management] involving shared storage,” Gorrai said.
The rise of Uber and Lyft, Airbnb and Vrbo— all shared services—in the 2010s brought the idea of sharing things to the realm of new, local business opportunities for Gorrai.
He said, “I kept thinking about it, and when I worked in New York City I inquired for an office space rental and the costs were exorbitant. I noticed the spaces weren’t as well-utilized and smaller companies were barely surviving just to be in NYC. "
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“About 10 years ago, I found Venture X online and went to Naples, Florida to look at their first location to investigate this business concept. I decided to take the leap, so we started looking at different locations.”
“Once I saw 23 Orchard, it presented the most appropriate space,” Gorrai said. “This building is interesting and is easy to access. I felt it’s the right place, and us being on the first floor is key to attracting and retaining clients.”
Gorrai now has three Venture X locations: Skillman, Lawrenceville, and Parsippany.
L-R: Mahender Gorrai, owner of the Skillman, Lawrenceville, and Parsippany locations of Venture X; Satya Shahade of Robbinsville, a client of the Skillman Venture X and CEO of HootBoard digital concierge kiosks; Ben Turofsky, director of leasing at the Montgomery Innovation Hub (23 Orchard Road), and Lakshmi Raghavan, founder and CEO of Healios Labs LLC.
Some companies and entrepreneurs renting Venture X space use the loading areas and storage closets, depending on the operational equipment and functions they need. Others use the large training and meeting rooms – which can hold up to 90 people – plus the open kitchen and lobby area, where networking and connections take place daily.
“Factor in amenities with the schools, Montgomery’s municipal offices and library so close by, plus the gym, many restaurants, and shopping centers — all make it comfortable to come here,” Gorrai said.
Above: An office for rent, common space, and a snack area.
Mack-Cali Realty helped with remodeling work but it was not a full renovation, Gorrai said.
Venture X's 22,000-square-foot space in Skillman was already outfitted for co-working, and Gorrai’s team strategized to make substantial changes inside including new flooring, carpeting, and other ‘modernizing’ features. There are rooms tailored to meetings, board retreats, and 1:1 meetings or interviews.
“Whether you’re a freelancer, entrepreneur, or remote professional, having a dedicated workspace helps you stay focused, boost productivity, and reclaim your personal time,” the company notes. Memberships are available for “remote workers, digital nomads, and traveling professionals seeking a flexible, upscale workspace.”
Members also get a reception area, a lounge, and a café. Through a “virtual office” plan, a client can take only a mailbox without a workspace, as a verified address can help build a business’s credibility. Google recognizes each Venture X location as a physical street address (unlike P.O boxes).
Free coffee, snacks, and a fresh barbecue lunch is offered every weekday.
“You get a sense of community with the different businesses and people to interact with, as we have purely a business environment. No noise from a cafe, no teens crowding in an area you’re working in,” Gorrai said. His plans include installing virtual golf and pickleball simulators. ■
Venture X
23 Orchard Road, Skillman
908.844.8359
>> Click to read County to Help Monty Fill Its Empty Office Bldgs
