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Hartz Mountain Industries (HMI) is a private family-owned-and-operated company known for its real estate holdings in the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan Area. Its former parent,

Hartz Mountain Corporation Hartz is a surname, and may refer to: *Donna Hartz, Aboriginal Australian midwife and academic * Harris Hartz (born 1947), U.S. federal judge *Harry Hartz (1896—1974), U.S. racecar driver * Jim Hartz (born 1940), U.S. television personality ...

, which is notable for its pet products, was founded by businessmen Max Stern and Gustav Stern.

Leonard N. Stern Leonard Norman Stern (born March 28, 1938) is an American billionaire businessman, and philanthropist. He is the chairman and CEO of the privately owned Hartz Group based in New York City. The company's real estate portfolio was owned and operat ...

is owner, Chairman, and CEO. It is based at 500 Plaza Drive in

Secaucus Secaucus ( ) is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 16,264,New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, in the Harmon Meadow Plaza retail shopping complex in the Meadowlands.

History

Max and Gustav Stern emigrated from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1926 with five thousand singing canaries (

Harz Roller Harz Roller (german: link=no, Harzer Roller ) is the name of a breed of domestic canary bred in the Upper Harz mountains of Germany. The birds were bred in the Upper Harz between Lautenthal and Sankt Andreasberg in the middle of the 19th centu ...

), and began manufacturing

bird food Bird food or bird seed is food (often varieties of seeds, nuts, and/or dried fruits) intended for consumption by wild and domestic birds. While most bird food is fed to commercial fowl (such as chicken or turkey), bird food is also used to fee ...

under the Hartz Mountain brand in 1932. They later sold pets such as canaries,

parakeet A parakeet is any one of many small to medium-sized species of parrot, in multiple Genus, genera, that generally has long tail feathers. Etymology and naming The name ''parakeet'' is derived from the French wor''perroquet'' which is reflec ...

hamster Hamsters are rodents (order Rodentia) belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae, which contains 19 species classified in seven genera.Fox, Sue. 2006. ''Hamsters''. T.F.H. Publications Inc. They have become established as popular small pets. The b ...

tropical fish Tropical fish are generally those fish found in aquatic tropical environments around the world. Fishkeepers often keep tropical fish in freshwater and saltwater aquariums. The term "tropical fish" is not a taxonomic group, but rather is a gene ...

, and associated supplies throughout the U.S. and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, and eventually introduced pet supply departments into supermarkets in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. Known as Hartz Mountain Corporation (HMC), this pet products side of the Hartz empire, which had been owned and operated by the Stern family for 75 years, was sold to investment group

J.W. Childs J. W. Childs Associates L.P. (JWC) is an American private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout and recapitalization transactions for middle-market growth companies. JWC places particular emphasis on consumer products, healthcare and specia ...

along with select HMC management in 2000, although for goodwill purposes it still retains the HMC name. HMC's new owners opted to retain its longtime Secaucus offices, so that HMC is now a tenant of the owners of the building, Hartz Mountain Industries (HMI). HMC was sold to the

Sumitomo Corporation is one of the largest worldwide ''sogo shosha'' general trading companies, and is a diversified corporation. The company was incorporated in 1919 and is a member company of the Sumitomo Group. It is listed on three Japanese stock exchanges ( ...

of Japan in 2004. In December 2011, the Japanese pet and household products maker

Unicharm is a Japanese company that manufactures disposable hygiene products, household cleaning products, specializing in the manufacture of diapers for both babies and adult incontinence, feminine hygiene products and pet care products. The company h ...

acquired 51% ownership of HMC from Sumitomo. Hartz Mountain Industries, which started as a real estate hobby for the Sterns, began construction of its first speculative industrial building in

Bayonne, New Jersey Bayonne ( ) is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Located in the Gateway Region, Bayonne is situated on a peninsula located between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill Van Kull to the south, and New York Bay to the east. As of ...

in 1966, and made its first major land acquisition with a tract of land in the

New Jersey Meadowlands New Jersey Meadowlands, also known as the Hackensack Meadowlands after the primary river flowing through it, is a general name for the large ecosystem of wetlands in northeastern New Jersey in the United States, a few miles to the west of N ...

. HMI currently owns more than of land close to

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

and its real estate activities account for most of its business. Among the properties it owns are the studios for

MLB Network The MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit, Comcast's NBC Sports Group, Charter Communications, and Cox Com ...

(formerly used by

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

) and the land on which

WWOR-TV WWOR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area as the Flagship (broadcasting), flagship of MyNetworkTV. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by Fox Te ...

's broadcast facilities sat prior to consolidating with sister station

WNYW WNYW (channel 5) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagship W ...

in Manhattan. Max's son,

, who joined the company in 1959, is the current Chairman and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

. Constantino T. Milano is president and COO, and his son Edward Stern also works for the company. As of October 2021, Hartz Mountain has more than 250 properties throughout New Jersey and the East Coast.

References

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External links

Hartz Mountain Corp Home PageHartz Mountain Industries
Companies based in Hudson County, New Jersey Privately held companies based in New Jersey Privately held companies of the United States Secaucus, New Jersey Family-owned companies of the United States