Dins l’antic campus d’IBM Palisades: 206 habitacions i un futur de probable demolició

Up a long driveway along the New Jersey New York border sits a massive abandoned office and convention hall. This is the Palisades IBM conference center. Inside was an entire self-contained campus spanning many acres. Over 200 private guest [music] rooms, large conference halls and auditoriums, an underground restaurant, lounges, a full fitness center, an indoor swimming pool, offices with personal things left behind, and so much more. Everything was carefully planned, clean, controlled, and professional. A reflection of IBM itself at the time. For decades, they weren't just a technology company. They helped build the modern world with governments, banks, [music] and global corporations relying on their systems. So when IBM trained its people, it didn't do it in rented hotel ballrooms. It built places like this. Ultimately, it was designed to be in a comfortable atmosphere [music] where employees, engineers, and highlevel executives could be brought in to train, strategize, and focus without distractions. For years, it ran successfully, but corporate priorities quickly changed. As IBM [music] downsized and its operations shifted, properties like this became unnecessary. In 2016, the company [music] sold the entire complex to a Chinese-owned convention and hospitality group for tens of millions of dollars with plans to repurpose it as a large-scale convention and event center. On paper, it was a success, but after the sale, they struggled to find constant use, even turning it into a CO 19 testing center. And by around 2020, operations were completely shut down. However, that was only the start of the problems. A mechanical malfunction spilled petroleum into the lake on the

property. Pipes burst [music] into the building, completely flooding the basements. And at one point, emergency crews were called, but they were unable to drive [music] in because of sinkholes forming along the roadways. As of recently, vandals have completely wrecked it, [music] and security has been put in place, but we were able to take a look at it in its untouched state in 2024. Join me as we explore. So, as we can see, this place has been abandoned for, I think, around 2 years. But, I mean, the driveway is all messed up. There's literally tree falling. And this sign, guest registration and parking just looks so apocalyptic. We have massive parking lots right here to the left. Even a helellipad, too. So, this place is no joke for sure. We were here a few days ago just kind of scoping it out, seeing if there was a way in. And here we are maybe a week later. So, we know how to get inside. We know all that where the cool rooms are. But, I mean, look at this place. It's huge. Multiple floors. So many acres. And if we come over here, we can even see a massive stream just going around and a little waterfall all the way over there. And then we have the skywalk kind of separating the two buildings. There were koi in this uh little river before. I don't see it now, but maybe they're just hiding. Here they are. That's so weird that they just left these here when the place got abandoned. I'm honestly surprised they're still alive cuz I there was a big sheet of ice on top of the whole water. So yeah, I mean good for them for still being alive. There's even big flock of ducks over there. So I mean nature and animals are definitely letting this place abandoned for sure. I returned back in the spring to get more footage. You will

see the contrast and seasons later in the video. All right, folks. So, we're starting right here in the hotel part and we're going to explore all the rooms, see everything that is inside, and then we're going to move on to the offices and see everything over there. But, as you can see, look at how big this part is. Wow. This is huge. Great natural lighting as well. So, I assume as we go up to the higher floors, that's where the rooms are going to be more luxurious, have a lot more features. So, let's walk into room 214 and kind of compare and contrast them. Yeah. Everything is left behind. Dang. Yeah, even the TV, the remotes, just the generic uh hotel stuff. I mean, look at the soap, hair dryer. So, I presume that's what all the rooms on this floor are going to look like. So, let's go upstairs and see some of those. Oh, wow. Little conference area here. I love all the natural lighting. All the windows here and the dead plant over there really brings an apocalyptic view here. I imagine they could walk out here. I imagine they could walk out here, take a breath. It really is in the middle of nowhere. We're just surrounded by woods and really foresty area. So, it is pretty peaceful out here. And just to bring into perspective how big this place actually is. Look at how far the hotel rooms go. And we have like five floors of this as well. This is incredible. Let's see if these rooms are any different up here on the third floor. Oh, wow. Yes, they are. Dang. So, here we have the the kind of living room area of the room, desk space, and then actual bedroom. Now, this is really cool. Yeah. And

these circular windows right at the corner. Oh, this is awesome. They have all these different, you know, controls here. Wake up call, conference hall, fitness center. Seems like we have one more floor. Let's check that out. Really starting to get a good view of this place. Just the scale, [music] just the natural lighting is incredible, too. And look at this expensive machinery left behind. It really shows that they took nothing with them. Oh, wow. It's definitely worth a few grand here. Of course, another dead plant. Seems like a little tree. Oh, we got another small room. Again, this one's not too special. See this water was $3. Wow. And look at these vending machines here. Everything is left behind in them. This is so apocalyptic. It looks like some people, you know, broke the glass. This was very recent for sure, but probably to, you know, kind of take the money that was left behind. Looks like someone drank some of that Pepsi. It's kind of half empty. This is really cool, though. And here we got the bar area, kind of the entertainment center for the actual convention hall. [music] I can imagine a lot of the guests, you know, grouping up here at the end of the day, just going for a party and nice drink here. But the fascinating thing about this, look at this. Wow. This drink was kind of left behind. And you could tell this is old because of the mold buildup there. Oh my gosh. This was like wine. I believe it's like everyone had to leave in like a rush. Like something bad happened in the middle of the day and everyone had to

evacuate. We still got all the drinks that haven't been taken or anything. Love to see that. All these beer bottles of the register. Someone try to, you know, kind of get in that. Oh my gosh. This is crazy. One grilled steak, one salmon. 7:45 p.m. [music] It's such an open space. I imagine a lot of, you know, fun times would have had here and even the game corner. So that I think this definitely would have been the the desired room to be here after a long day's work. It's a shame someone like kind of broke this window. Really sad the disrespect people have. They don't, you know, care about these places. I presume a TV would definitely been over there. Oh, no way. And look at that. That looks like a raetball court. And now this area as well is, you know, this kind of sports hall. We're going to go downstairs and see the racket court shortly. But look at this. We got the pool over here. And then right below us is the fullsize gym. Oh, that's like frozen in time. All the pool toys and everything left behind. So downstairs we got the the locker rooms and saunas and then the fitness center. And so this is kind of where that begins here. Whoa. And look at this. All the equipment. Oh my gosh. It feels like the wood is kind of starting to buckle a little bit. Quite an echo here, too. We got another basketball court here, too. There's a different layout. Yeah, the the floor is definitely buckling here without a doubt. >> Oh, yeah. Oh, this is like raetball or, you know, squash or something. Yep. Raet ball rules.

And then [music] pretty much parallel to the courts here, we have the gym and the pool. I'm really excited to see this part. And when I was here a few months ago, this door was actually locked and [music] we had to like crawl through this uh you know this broken glass part. This is amazing though. I can imagine this place when it was open. Clear blue waters, people all over, probably launch chairs, [music] you know, kind of around here. Wow. And then the cool thing is behind this kind of 80s glass windows is the gym. So, we'll see that, you know, really soon. I love these square windows, too. kind of the the tile decor really, you know, matches well. And directly outside, we actually have this, you know, stream and small waterfall. So, it brings in, you know, really ambient noise as you're kind of chilling here. It seems to be the same depth the whole time. It doesn't get deeper anywhere. Look at this. Here is where we start to see, you know, a lot of the decay. the the the ceiling just completely falling down here. But all this equipment, there's so much money in this room just left behind. And look at this mold just kind of forming up here. That's so sad. Oh yeah, the lighting here would have been incredible. Light bulbs kind of going around the windows. Free weights over here. [music] bench. Right underneath us, we have the the stream that kind of goes around the property. And we can see the kind of parking lot from here. And then right under that kind of glass roof is the main entrance, kind of the carport where you can get

dropped off. I mean, looking around in every direction, all we see is just the massive building and then the forest. And then right here, we're approaching the main entrance. And I love the use of natural light here because there's no windows around. There's just these top ones. And they just shine a beautiful light [music] right here on these chairs. There would have been, you know, potted plants in between all of them. They're all like dead and gone now. Yeah. So, that's where we came from. The guest rooms, fitness center, and game room. And this is what you see when you first walk in here. There actually used to be a big model of the whole property here of the whole building [music] and everything. And it was just taken out. Very tall ceilings. They had a lot of nature in this room and now it's just completely dead. And it might have been Christmas time, too, cuz we have, you know, Christmas lights kind of all over this tree here. And look how incredible this is. This was kind of the dining hall right here. You could eat inside or you could walk outside here and eat. And look at how apocalyptic that looks. But I mean, it's really cool because that part is actually underground. And so above that area is a a courtyard. Even this gas fireplace to greet you as soon as you walk in. And right here are the front doors. There might have been, you know, probably a door man or, you know, receptionist um in this area past this door here. Oh, yeah. Yep. There we have it. The reception desk. So, we have three sets of doors. Wow. Really cool light. Very modern looking. Now, we have the classrooms. Watson

room, whatever that is, and the concierge probably had these TVs playing, you know, some promotional uh adverts or, you know, even a show maybe. So, before we go in that section, which is the the offices and convention halls. Uh we're going to go downstairs here, check out the dining room and the kitchen. And it's incredible because all the food is left behind. It's like everyone just vanished completely. Look at this. This part is actually still alive. And I think people were kind of dumping their drinks here. And that just barely saved this part of the plant. That's so cool. So this is what happens as soon as you walk down the stairs. We have the the kind of cashier here kind of to bring you to the dining hall over there. Yeah. Some vandals definitely ripped out. The money took it all. But I mean, the trash can's still full. The menus right here on the bottom, the cocktails, even someone's shoe, probably a worker's uniform. And then directly to the left is all the different restaurants. And look how cool this is. This display here full of, you know, alcohol and everything. I imagine there would have been probably like 10, 20 different restaurants here all serving different types of food. Really cool that. I mean, everything is left here still. The takeout boxes, the colory, maybe had like a buffet style table right here under the chandelier. Think that's definitely what it was. Here's like the kitchen for anybody curious. Everything's still kind of here, but I almost missed this room. All the wine. That's got to be not not too old. Probably still drinkable. Holy cow. It's left just as it was. All neatly

stacked. I think they had this hose to pump water out of the basement. I remember reading something about a massive, massive leak [music] that happened down there. And I mean, because of that, the whole thing is covered up and down with black mold. I think that's the reason they have this here now. But look at this. Wow. And here are the skylights that we saw, you know, before. [music] So, right above us is a courtyard. You could like walk up here. I love how everything is still set up. There's not a piece of graffiti anywhere. Nothing's trashed. Oh, and this the the dishwashing station right here. It does smell like food in here, not going to lie. And all the dishes are left behind. All this kind of the the cleaning station kind of the belt. It goes around. This looks like food was left behind here. I think that's what happened. Yeah. Wow. So these were the the dirty plates up on these shelves here. And they even had a buffet [music] area right here too. So they had a lot of options without a doubt. Another view of, you know, a little bit decay happening. Wow. This is awesome. This is such a big room. Look at this. And we have speakers on like every corner. stereo systems, everything. And we even have some private dining rooms here, too. And this is what they would have looked like. So, you could probably, you know, have a meal during a meeting. I even see a place to put down a a kind of projector screen right there. Some great natural decay.

This kind of rust water just building up on the carpet. Yeah. And these are all dining rooms. Even this ATM left behind. This place was probably abandoned with all the money in there. And it looks like someone kind of broke in and took all the money from inside. This really shows how quickly this place closed. So now here we are back in the lobby and we're going to continue through this kind of small skyway over to the classrooms and Watson room. [music] Right outside we have a good view of the driveway just all overgrown. All the vines on the pillars and we have a little bit of rain coming down. Really adds to the mood. And this is what I was talking about before. You kind of walk on top of the actual dining room. And this is what I was talking about before. You can walk on top of the dining room. We have the little path and then the grassy area which would be maintained once upon a time. And now this is where we have kind of the offices, the classrooms, that type of stuff right here. This kind of the main lobby for that area. And then look at this. Wa. All those lights up top. I'm sure a lot of big presentations would happened here. We have the the three projector screens as well. Oh, look at this. Yeah, this is really cool. And we have like a really good view of the front entrance to this place as well. The kind of circular driveway up here and the glass roof. Yeah, we got a bunch of storage and cleaning equipment back here. They probably did a service where they could do laundry for you. they would come to your room, just take your clothes and then bring it back when it's already done. So now we have two levels

we could check out here. And then from there it kind of branches off to, you know, a third floor and fourth floor as well. I think we'll start down here and then we'll move on later on. So we got classrooms, telephones, restrooms, and elevators over here in this section. So yeah, so along this hallway, we just have a lot of different conference rooms. Definitely, you know, a lot smaller than the main one we saw just now, but there there has to be, you know, hundreds of them. Oh, this natural decay right here is amazing, too. There's some moss just growing on the carpet. Wow. There's black mold and moss just growing on the carpet. That's incredible. And this is one of the the nourishment hubs that they had. And I imagine this would have been this table at least would have been filled with, you know, cups and, you know, different drinks, snacks, all that type of stuff. So, this was like a full-on professional conference hall. You know, they catered to everyone. I'm sure it was, you know, pretty expensive as well. Yeah. And a business center, too. I'm sure all these cubicles, you know, had like a computer to it, maybe a printer, fax machine. Oh, we actually have one over there. Fax machine. But yeah, this is definitely really professional business center. And you can just walk out those doors, get some fresh air, too. And these individual rooms right over there, that would have been for, you know, telephones. um if you could have like a private call. And I'm sure this is kind of soundproof right here as well. And then as we continue going on, all these rooms on the left are just, you know, different classrooms. This reminds me of kind of like a

college campus. Especially this room. It seems like this whole hallway is just pretty much the same thing. Yeah. Another nourishment hub, but then more, you know, phone stations. though. And we end off the first floor with once again another nourishment hub and then doors. Dang, they had a lot of these. I don't know why they had so many of them. There's no really point and having like five in just one small corridor. And this kind of is the end of the property building wise. I mean, we have tennis courts all the way at the end. A lot of other places to relax and hang out, but this is the end of the buildings. Look at that massive camera. Definitely outdated. We have a really good view of all the buildings and the property. I mean, that's the hotel place we were just in before. And I mean, you could see the span of it, how far it just goes back. I mean, the camera really doesn't describe how big this place actually is. Now, here we are on the second floor. Wow, look at this. And this is actually level to the land outside. So, I don't know. This place is kind of built on a an incline. Striker trauma 2011. What? Yeah. So, this was some like medical classroom here. Look at all this equipment left. Look at the boards. They still have, you know, kind of the classroom writing to it. And now the second floor. It seems like pretty much an exact copy of what we saw down below. You know, the nourishment hub on the right, the phone calls on the left, but this one is actually really cool because everything is left behind. Yeah. So, this is a really good view of what this would have looked like, you

know, before we had all the drinks here. M&M's probably for, you know, fruits and vegetables up here. Oh, and this is the the courtyard right above the dining hall. A good view of that. And this uh business center kind of like a mini lobby. You could talk to someone about, you know, maybe uh getting a room or something. But look at this. It's all of it left behind. So this was all of their stuff, their you know personal belongings all left behind. This is unreal. And that's them. [music] You know the kind of workers here. So it's calendar January 2019. Well, that's 2020. So maybe you closed because of co to Gino. I'll miss working with you every day. I know I'll always be your favorite conference planning partner. You are the best. [music] We actually have some prices. So, wine glass $9, beer six, five. So, just regular prices, just the of course upcharged, but and that that right there in the picture on the left, that is a photo back when this was still active. That's the the skywalk and then the kind of stream underneath it. Yes. So, this one's frozen in time, too. Everything's left here. Yeah. And a buffet buffet section, too. But it seems like, you know, it's the same thing over and over again. So, we're going to move on. I imagine it's going to be pretty similar to what we already saw, but I'm sure there's going to be some new rooms cuz this part does go back quite a lot. Seems to have like offices just lining up throughout there. Okay, so we have more call centers than the refreshment areas

and then a lot more rooms. Room C370 is a massive conference hall right here. A lot of modern lights up top. You've been on this section for a while now. Is there anything like really cool to see? Yeah. I mean, this section that we're in right now, it looks like the there was like an IBM um headquarters that kind of stayed in this wing. And then the the wings A, B, and C, there's like looks like it was for guests. Uh there's like mugs still set up, like big sky [music] rooms, probably five of those. And um everything's just kind of left just as it was. There's massive theater rooms in A, B, and C as well. Just all the chairs are there. And they're all kind of different, too. It's really cool. Uh I just I don't know how not much was taken from here. [music] It's all just kind of left around. >> So in this section we have the training and development area. And so maybe this was a like some sort of technical school. Yeah, just some industrial stuff. Oh, interesting. Okay, so this section is actually locked. Hm. So, we have just a lot of office cubicles in here. Well, I suppose let's uh head up the stairs and we can see what's up here. Wow, look at all these papers. Dang. So, this is from 2009. [music] The minimum wage was 725. Another coffee bar type of thing. Hallway full of offices. This one's actually unlocked. This is fascinating. Yeah. So, this was everyone's like individual cubicle kind of thing. They had a lot of these here. Bunch of keys were left in this one. And we also have a view of kind of all the roads that lead up to this building. All abandoned and decaying. [music] Same basic stuff pretty much. It's a

chair. Trash can. They might have taken all the computers out. What? Look at this one. Big meeting room presentation area. Yeah. Seems like some local kids have found this place. They're playing hangman, just writing a bunch of gibberish. Luckily, they kept it just on these uh kind of screens [music] and not on the walls or anything. So, that's good. The room signing sheet. So, it seems [music] like this place just doubled as a hotel, convention center, and then even offices for different companies. It was that big. very modern kind of lunchroom area or hangout spot. This place just doesn't fail to surprise me. There's always just new stuff on every corner. I thought we were going to be done like 30 minutes ago, but no, there's always more. Even all these phones left behind. Flip phones. Now, up here on the the third floor, this is where the actual offices are. Oh my gosh. Holy cow. What happened here? All of their personal belongings are left behind. This beats box goggles, a medicine, and all of the offices, the cubicles are just like this, too. Here's another one. A lot of valuables in here. Look at all this. Maybe some IT room. Definitely. What's this? Guest room technology team. The power and yeah. Some kind of storage parts. If you know something broke, they

can come here fix it up. Look at the heavy lock here too. Wow. They really try to keep this secure. Fourth floor C-section. Just seems to be a ton of offices. Lucky for us, the doors actually open. So on the right, we have the individual queue. [music] Oh my gosh. What? This is incredible. Oh my goodness. I mean, all his personal things are still here. papers, his mug, passwords, FBI most wanted expenses, even the cubicles of everything left behind. All the paper folders and plants. This whole place reminds me of like Fukushima with everything just left behind. Just incredible. And just to think that every single cubicle and office room has everything left behind. This one's locked. That one is too, I believe. Yeah, like uh original writing is still on the board. Oversold room types. Some of them are locked, but most of them are still open, which is gives us a great view of how this place used to go. It's just insane. >> As of now, the property is no longer in use and remains under private ownership. Redevelopment plans have been discussed, but due to the scale of the site, environmental issues, and structural damage, any future project would likely require extensive demolition and remedation. The existing buildings are not expected to reopen in their current state. And whatever moves forward here, the complex as it once existed is effectively finished. Thank you for watching.