Manufacturers Village owner Tracy Hubert stands on the Black Lives Matter mural.
EAST ORANGE, NJ — Day-to-day care for Manufacturers Village — the historic, 140-year-old haven for artists, inventors, scientists and entrepreneurs in East Orange — has been entrusted to Sheldon Gross Realty. The company’s president, Marcy Gross, has professional expertise in property management and during her three-decade career has managed more than a million square feet of commercial and industrial space. But she’s never before handled anything like the remarkable brick structure on Glenwood Avenue that was constructed circa 1880.
“Manufacturers Village is unique,” Gross said of the site, which currently has approximately 40 tenants within its 100,000-square-feet of interior space. “There’s no other facility like it anywhere. So, in implementing an effective maintenance and security program, we’re essentially developing new processes as we go.”
For Gross, Manufacturers Village was a familiar property long before she began managing it. Her father, Sheldon Gross — the founder of Sheldon Gross Realty — began providing real estate services to the location’s owners in the ’60s. But, the history of Manufacturers Village stretches much further back than that. Constructed during the 1880s, it served as the original corporate headquarters for Johnson & Johnson before being repurposed for manufacturing in the early 1900s.
Marcy Gross said she embraces the challenge of taking care of the historic property, and is focused on ensuring that it will continue to benefit the local and regional community.
“Because of our company’s long history with Manufacturers Village, I know how important it is to so many people,” she said. “We’re going to safeguard it and help ensure that it’s available to people in and around East Orange for many years to come.”
Earlier this year, Manufacturers Village — in collaboration with Liquitex, the Arts Council of East Orange and Pink Dragon Artist Syndicate — made the largest portion of its parking lot available for the creation of a vibrant Black Lives Matter mural. Each of the mural’s 16 huge letters reflects the creative vision of a different, local artist.
Photos Courtesy of Kiymora Smith
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