LG Breaks Ground on North American Headquarters Along Hudson in New Jersey

LG Electronics finally broke ground Tuesday at its Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, location for a 350,000-square-foot North American headquarters building that had been mired for years in zoning obstructions leading to a 2015 redesign (see 1507060039). The $300 million project has been in the works since 2009 when LG proposed a 143-foot tower that was quietly approved by local officials in a zoning area that limits buildings to a height of 35 feet. Environmental groups and the New Jersey state Senate took up the issue as part of an effort to ban tall buildings along the New Jersey Palisades over the Hudson River opposite Manhattan. The tower was redesigned at a height of 70 feet “to protect the scenic views of the Palisades,” said LG in a news release. The design includes landscape, lighting and other design features to “further reduce visual impacts, while retaining the scale of the complex as home for LG's growing U.S. business,” said the South Korean electronics company. The building project will contribute an estimated $26 million annually to the local economy, said LG. The new corporate campus at 111 Sylvan Ave. will allow LG to double its local employment to more than 1,000 by 2019, it said.