NEW JERSEY—Cassidy Turley recently released its first quarter Office Market Report. In the report, the commercial real estate services provider states that recent employment data may be good news for the New Jersey office market.
“Job growth in office-related industries over six consecutive months is encouraging and stimulating demand,” said David A. Simon, SIOR, executive managing director, principal, New Jersey for Cassidy Turley. “While conditions in each submarket are unique, there is a general sense of stability and improvement throughout the state.”
In Northern New Jersey, Cassidy Turley points out that while the vacancy rate rose slightly to 15.0 percent from 14.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, the Hudson Waterfront and Parsippany submarkets registered the highest net absorption, with a high percentage of the activity in Parsippany coming from lease renewals.
Also contributing to good news is Northern New Jersey is the rising construction activity. Currently, approximately 768,017 sq. ft. of office space is under construction, doubling the amount of space that was under construction at the beginning of 2011.
In Central New Jersey, the vacancy rate in the first quarter remained stable at 16.6 percent, slightly increasing from 16.5 percent in the previous quarter, while the average asking rental rate increased by $0.32. This is the first increase in over a year. Pharmaceutical and life sciences companies continue to lead the way in both lease and sale activity, particularly in the Somerset/ I-78 submarket.