New Jersey

By David Simon, SIOR, COO, NAI DiLeo-Bram Having recently surpassed the one-year mark since COVID-19 reached the United States, we can now better assess the pandemic’s impact on our local office market. Reviewing a year of data and market activity helps paint a more detailed picture of where things stand currently and may be headed. The overall direct vacancy rate for the combined counties of Essex, Middlesex, Morris, Somerset and Union New Jersey has risen 120 basis points since the start of the pandemic to 12.7 percent. Much of the space becoming vacant or available is higher-quality product; in fact the Class A direct vacancy rate has risen 180 basis points during the pandemic and is currently 17 percent. As a result, tenants looking in this segment of the market have a broad selection of high-quality office product. Sublet space has followed a similar trend to that of direct space, marking a 70 basis point increase since the start of the pandemic. More than 1.1 million square feet of Class A sublease product has become available during this period. Notwithstanding the statistics above, our firm recently completed over 28,000 square feet of office leases in Middlesex County, at 100 Metroplex …

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By Danielle Brunelli, president, R.J. Brunelli & Co.  On both the landlord and tenant sides, 2020 was a tough year for the Northern New Jersey retail market. But as some of the industry’s most optimistic voices predicted, the hard times are passing, and actually passing fairly quickly. In 2020, we saw leasing activity decline by almost 30 percent year over year. This languishing activity resulted in a 3.1 percent drop in the market rent on a per-square-foot basis. Over the past couple years, there were several bankruptcies in the works that were accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. These bankruptcies resulted in many new vacancies in the region, including former stores of Modells, Justice, Pier 1 Imports, Tuesday Morning, Steinmart and others. However, light has appeared at the end of the tunnel, and we are seeing renewed leasing activity as we close the first quarter of 2021. Users including Planet Fitness, Dollar Tree, Harbor Freight, Raymour and Flanigan, salon suites concepts, Five Below and others are leasing up vacant spaces quickly. Tenant Expansions A good example of an essential service business that has benefited from an increase in sales throughout the pandemic and aggressively expanded in the region in 2020 is …

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By Lenny Tartamella, COO of Larken Associates Since the moment the first subdivision was built, the debate defining the residential and multifamily development process has been centered around the core question of, “Where do people want to live?” As we look to answer this question in 2021, the answer is not as clear as it seemed only several years ago. It is obvious that the living preferences of millennials — those born between 1981 and 1996 who at 70 million now represent the largest segment of the U.S. adult population — and the generation after them, Gen Z, will be a key piece of the answer. Similarly, and not to be forgotten when we are answering this question, the preferences of seniors and those nearing retirement age will also factor heavily into how our multifamily communities continue to evolve. While the differences between those two groups already make answering the core question behind multifamily development difficult, the COVID-19 pandemic and its disruption to how we live, work and play have only added further complexity to the answer. However, as we move towards a post-pandemic future of a live-work-play lifestyle, a new word is entering our lexicon that precisely defines where this …

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By Scott Mertz, SIOR, president, NAI Mertz The industrial sector has proven to be the only entity with innate immunity to the coronavirus. The onset of the virus has had nary an impact on the soaring demand, rising lease rates and rapid pace of new construction in the major industrial markets throughout the nation. If anything, the increased reliance on home delivery due to stay-at-home orders has only elevated the need for well-located warehouse space from e-commerce companies. That’s been the story in Southern New Jersey, where demand remains high and inventory is in short supply. The vacancy rate has dropped below 4.5 percent, and market rent has been on a steady ascent, standing at $6.55 per square foot at the end of 2020. With more players than open seats, it’s no surprise that developers are seeking to build on any viable plot of land in the region. Construction start activity reached a crescendo in the third quarter of 2020 with 4.2 million square feet entering development. All told, there is 7.1 million square feet of new construction on the way in Southern New Jersey. Many of these facilities will be delivered to market fully occupied. Over the past five …

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By Jonathan Glick, executive vice president, Sheldon Gross Realty Projecting future trends is always challenging, particularly when you’re attempting to do it during a global pandemic. But to date, several promising signs suggest that New Jersey’s office market is moving in a positive direction —sluggishly and bumpily, perhaps — but in an encouraging direction nonetheless. Newly delivered projects can provide insight on where the Garden State’s office market is headed in terms of geography, design, functionality and usage. We offer several examples of 2020 deals that help illustrate these trends. Sheldon Gross marketed and brokered the sale of a two-story 13,000-square-foot office building in Cranbury that featured an appealing location, just off exit 8A of the New Jersey Turnpike. The structure had been for sale and vacant for two years, but its out-of-state owner was willing to wait until a fair market offer materialized, which it did just prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. But with the pandemic unleashed on the market,  all communication and negotiations ceased. By May, the prospective purchaser had withdrawn from the transaction. It wasn’t until September that a new deal was negotiated with a buyer that intended to occupy most of the building, rather than sharing …

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By Mark Russo, director of research, Newmark Knight Frank The industrial markets of Northern and Central New Jersey have held strong thus far in 2020 as heightened e-commerce activity has offset the disruption caused by COVID-19. Total e-commerce sales rose by 31.8 percent in the second quarter relative to that period in 2019, according to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce. While demand for retail and office space has been negatively impacted, steady rent growth and stable vacancy highlight the resilience of the industrial sector. Industrial tenants moving into new deliveries have helped generate 4.2 million square feet of positive net absorption year-to-date. Vacancy currently averages 4.3 percent, down from 4.5 percent a year ago. Meanwhile, the average asking rent grew by 2.1 percent over the past year to a record mark of $9.20 per square foot. Online Shopping Fuels Leasing Social distancing measures and store closures caused by the pandemic have accelerated the adoption of online shopping. This has led to increased demand for logistics and distribution space among e-commerce companies. In fact, e-commerce deals have accounted for 75 percent of industrial leasing activity in Northern and Central New Jersey since April, compared to a quarterly average of …

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By Marc Isdaner, senior managing director, principal, Colliers International; and Ian Richman, senior managing director, Colliers International Strong job and population growth in recent years have caused the Philadelphia/Southern New Jersey industrial market to continually rise on the radars of both investors and developers. As the nation battles COVID-19, we see demand for industrial space growing as more users look to service last-mile customers in densely populated areas. This market is no exception. With the right guidance and counseling, investors can achieve strong returns here, even as variables like user demand and land/construction costs continue to rise, bringing valuations and sales prices along with them. Projects Get Bigger We continue to see developers take down large tracts near major thoroughfares in this region, oftentimes building on speculative bases. Examples of such projects are Mansfield Logistics Park, a 960,000-square-foot, two-building spec development by Clarion Partners off Interstate 295 in Burlington County that is nearing completion; and The Cubes at East Greenwich, a two-building spec development located off I-295 in Gloucester County. The latter project is being developed in an area that was largely inactive until 2018, as land sites and established industrial parks such as Pureland were essential built out. Scout …

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By Alex Patton During the business lull caused by the outbreak of COVID-19, fast casual sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s made news by rolling out a $150 million nationwide retrofit project for its stores. The project will include aesthetic and comfortability upgrades for 1,700 franchise stores, as well as expanded functionality for delivery and pick-up services — all paid for by the company. “Paying for the retrofits ourselves is a tactical move on our part,” says Peter Cancro, CEO of Jersey Mike’s. “Whenever you put money in your business, it always comes back. It’s an investment into our people — every dollar we put into the project we’ll get back in loyalty and trust from our franchise owners and our customers.” The Manasquan, New Jersey-based company operates approximately 1,750 stores across 48 states and plans to expand to 2,000 by the end of 2021. Though the company is growing its store count quickly, it is still a relatively small player in the national sandwich game. By comparison, Jersey Mike’s two closest competitors, Subway and Jimmy John’s, operate 24,000 and 2,800 stores in the United States, respectively. Amid state-mandated temporary closures of retail stores and restaurants, Jersey Mike’s was able to continue …

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Across the Hudson River, retailers and residents in Northern New Jersey benefit from lower rents and lower sales prices relative to Manhattan. In addition, mass transit lines that cross the river enable mixed-use destinations that offer dining and entertainment experiences, including the new American Dream project, to function as day-trip destinations for residents and tourists. “Northern New Jersey is still a strong tenant’s market,” says John Azarian, co-founder and CEO of New Jersey-based brokerage firm The Azarian Group. “Tenants are commanding and receiving substantial build-out and tenant improvement accommodations, with the strongest retail tenants being in the service, fitness and dining industries.” The retail vacancy rate in Northern New Jersey in the third quarter stood at 4.2 percent, unchanged from a year ago. During the same period, the asking rent rose 2.1 percent to $26.47 per square foot, according to Marcus & Millichap. The firm projects that 3.1 million square feet of new retail space will be delivered in Northern New Jersey by the end of 2019. Most of that new product will be housed at the American Dream entertainment and retail development in East Rutherford. In late October, Triple Five Group opened the first phase of its approximately $5 …

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Employment growth in New Jersey continues to trend higher. Since the low point of the last recession in 2010, the state’s private sector has seen almost 409,000 new jobs added (through July). Of the office-using industries, professional and business services have shown healthy annual job growth — up 13,900 jobs — while financial services jobs have recorded declines over the past year. Meanwhile, the state’s unemployment rate continued to tick lower to 3.3 percent (as of July), the lowest in its recorded history. Within this context, the fundamentals of the New Jersey office market remain healthy as we enter the final quarter of 2019, with absorption totals remaining in the black, vacancies sinking lower and asking rents trending upward. Regional Discrepancies Northern New Jersey’s vacancy rate had dropped to 18.3 percent by the middle of 2019, the lowest point since the end of 2012, while central New Jersey checked in at 15.5 percent, marking four consecutive quarterly decreases. Space has tightened in some key submarkets, making landlords increasingly bullish. As a result, asking rents in Northern New Jersey have risen to $31.62 per square foot — an all-time high and a jump of 17.8 percent over the last four years. …

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