REAL ESTATE
The downturn hit New Jersey hard across all markets. But the recovery is lifting the urban office markets a bit higher and faster than the suburban campuses the state’s known for.
Tenants Take a Break
From the Suburbs
By Antoinette Martin
First-quarter reports on the New Jersey commercial office market were all spiced with unsavory adjectives like “weak,” “static” and “slow.” But
one of the sourest comments concerned
plain vanilla.
In a recent Cushman & Wakefield briefing, investment analyst Gary Gabriel said
simply, “Vanilla suburban is a very difficult
sell in today’s market.” Other analysts,
brokers and developers were quick to
agree. Last year’s office market activity was
Panasonic received a $102-million credit to relocate from its longtime Secaucus headquarters to Two Riverfront Plaza, to be built by Matrix Development Group and
SJP Properties. The electronics giant signed a 15-year lease for 250,000 feet of the 410,000-square-foot Newark tower. The deal sparked a lawsuit against the EDA,
which was dropped after the initiation of the suburban-oriented tax credit program.
