Tenants Take a Break From the Suburbs

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 years office market activity was dominated by a handful of very large tax incentive-backed deals for new corporate space in urban centers, even as older class A buildings out in campus-land often went begging for buyers and tenants, they noted. The experts agreed that a “bifurcated” market, with juxtaposed trends, continued in early 2012.