Technology company iCIMS opened its sleek, multimillion-dollar headquarters on Monday in Bell Works, hoping to launch a new era for the historic Bell Labs building.
With iCIMS employees wearing red shirts saying “The Future Starts Now,” Colin Day, its chief executive officer, noted the significance, before encouraging them to enjoy the journey.
“This is not a destination,” Day told them as they gathered in the atrium. “This is not a sign that we’ve made it. We’ve got a long, long way to go. This is a launching pad.”
iCIMS makes software that helps companies manage their recruiting process. It has 650 employees and upwards of $150 million in annual revenue.
Its expansion is noteworthy. iCIMS, along with another technology company, WorkWave, were key tenants for Bell Works, a 2-million-square-foot project that officials hope will help revive the Jersey Shore’s rich technology history.
“It provided momentum for other tenants and confidence,” said Ralph Zucker, president of Somerset Development, Bell Works’ developer. “WorkWave and iCIMS were hand in hand. And from there the flood gates opened.”
It sounded like a good start. New Jersey’s economy during the past two decades has been hamstrung by a wave of millennials who have moved from the suburbs to the city, reversing the path that the baby boom generation followed.
iCIMS has stayed in New Jersey, confident it can continue to recruit top-flight talent. Its new office could give it more allure, particularly as millennials get older and begin to have families.
“We had training in New York last week, Monday through Wednesday, and I remember the last day we were coming back and were saying there’s no way we would ever do this,” said Brendan Cyrus, 31, of Howell, who helps design software and now has a 4-month-old son.
“My father commuted from the same distance every single day until he retired just last year,” Cyrus said. “I couldn’t imagine the change of pace, the change of lifestyle, especially living down here.”
iCIMS was founded in 1999 in a dental office building in Hazlet, and it has taken an unusual path in the technology world, growing slowly but surely, taking advantage of booms and surviving busts.
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