Richard Baumstein, executive vice president, and Matthew Seltzer, senior director, at Cushman & Wakefield's East Rutherford office and Mitchell Barnett of the firm's Manhattan headquarters worked on behalf of the tenant. M. Alfieri Co. owns the Metropark Corporate Campus and was represented in-house. The building serves as Grant Thornton's main New Jersey office.
Baumstein declined to specify the exact length of the lease or the rental rate the deal was struck at. A Q3 report from C&W charts direct weighted average class A gross rents in the Woodbridge/Edison submarket at $32.51 a square foot. The renewal, Baumstein tells GlobeSt.com, did not include an expansion of space.
The previous lease expired Sept. 1 and C&W did search the Metropark area for new accommodations for Grant Thornton, Baumstein says. Ultimately, the landlord offered a package of attractive rents, a rent abatement period and a work letter allowance that enticed the tenant to stay. "It was the best transaction we found in the immediate neighborhood," Baumstein says.
Also, the four-building, approximately one million-square-foot Metropark Corporate Campus' location at the intersection of the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike with access to Manhattan via Amtrak was another reason the tenant chose to remain at the building.
"The property's central New Jersey location and easy accessibility make it a perfect base for Grant Thornton in terms of efficiently serving its regional customer base and employees," Baumstein says.
The state has seen a slew of office lease renewals in recent weeks. Baumstein attributes that trend to a desire by landlords to keep space filled, even if it means cutting rents. "It's better to keep cash flow than risk having to carry the cost of empty space," he says. Conversely, tenants are averse to spending dollars on an expensive relocation.
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