NEW JERSEY — The New Jersey industrial market has maintained its historically high rate of rent growth and low rate of vacancy through the third quarter, respectively clocking in at $9.39 per square foot and 3 percent, according to the latest report from Cushman & Wakefield.
Demand for industrial space from e-commerce and third-party logistics users fueled the performances of both metrics as consumers increasingly spent more time at home and shopped online amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Year-to-date, the Garden State has absorbed more than 6.5 million square feet of industrial space, down only slightly from the 7.2 million square feet absorbed by the end of the third quarter in 2019. However, Jason Price, the firm’s director of Tri-State research, noted that the moderate decline in year-to-date absorption was more attributable to lack of supply than diminished tenant demand.
Construction activity has risen over the first nine months of 2020 relative to that period in 2019 as the market has shown signs of being undersupplied. Year-to-date, developers have delivered some 8.1 million square feet of new inventory, a 28.6 percent increase from the 6.3 million square feet delivered through the first three quarters of last year. In addition, New Jersey’s industrial pipeline spans roughly 7 million square feet of new projects under construction, with roughly a quarter of that space preleased.