MOVING FORWARD: IRG contracts Veolia to provide Central Utility Operations at former Pfizer grounds in Pearl River

Industrial Realty Group (IRG) has contracted Veolia Energy Operating Services, LLC (Veolia) to operate and maintain its central utility plant and combined heat and power (CHP) facility in Pearl River, New York on the former northern grounds of the Pfizer campus.

Veolia will manage utilities across 250 acres of property, much of which is dedicated to the pharmaceutical and technology industries. The Pearl River site will ultimately be the home of many high-tech and mission-critical industrial companies in this space.

Under this contract, Veolia will manage the water and energy utilities of IRG’s Pearl River campus, including a 23-megawatt (MW) cogeneration (CHP) plant, 18,000-ton chiller plant, 400,000-pound-per-hour boiler plant, 3.1 MGD water and wastewater treatment plant; and electrical, steam and chilled water distribution systems.

Veolia’s services will allow IRG to focus more on real estate development while ensuring the tenants’ customers receive reliable and high-quality utilities. The onsite team has extensive experience managing mission-critical utility operations leveraging its global expertise and resources to ensure business continuity.

“Our team will work to optimize operations from a reliability and cost perspective,” said John Gibson, president and COO of Veolia’s Municipal & Commercial business. “Maximizing utility performance will allow IRG to focus on its core mission of developing a cost-competitive location to attract industrial manufacturers.”

In 2009, Pfizer purchased the pharmaceutical corporation Wyeth, which operated a single pharmaceutical plant on the Pearl River grounds. The site once employed 4,000 workers but following Pfizer’s drastic cuts the number fell to 750 or so. The Pearl River site has hosted pharmaceutical research and production since around the turn of the 19th century, originally under the banner of the Lederle corporation.

After Pfizer downsized its Pearl River operation it sold off most of the buildings and property to IRG, which hopes to revitalize the site and attract a coterie of pharmaceutical companies to fill the vacancies.

  Industrial Realty Group, IRG, pfizer, Veolia, Veolia Energy Operating Services