“That is a little bit of timing,” Katz explains. I/O Data Centers has begun moving into the 830,000-square-foot former New York Times printing plant in Edison, and Wakefern Food Corp. has leased more than 1 million square feet in Carteret. Union and Mercer Counties saw negative absorption of 117,408 square feet and 230,885 square feet, respectively.

Northern New Jersey saw an overall negative net absorption of 166,194 square feet, with Bergen County reporting negative absorption of 359,450 square feet. Hudson County saw a positive absorption of 204,169 square feet.

Fortunately, only 427,978 square feet of new space is under construction. A true positive is the acquisitions market. Among the deals in the last quarter were the $57 million acquisition ($45 per square foot) of 8001 and 8003 Industrial Avenue in Carteret and the purchase of 700 Dell Road in Carlstadt. for $7.7 million (a whopping $281 per square foot). “The sale numbers are still off the charts--the sale numbers aren’t depressed,” Katz says.

Despite a decline in the state unemployment rate from 9.1% in May 2010 to 8.5% in May 2011, uncertainty continues to dominate the industry, Katz says. The result is that businesses from the largest blue-chip companies to mom-and-pops are reluctant to expand. “We have not seen true growth,” Katz says. “So people are just trading properties.”