“All aspects of leasing velocity declined, including the flight-to-quality trend, with Class A accounting for only 41.3% of leasing activity, a 28% decline over last year,” Jeff Babikian of CBRE's Saddle River office tells GlobeSt.com.

Certain Class A buildings within walking distance of mass transit connections did much better than average, Babikian says. “Metropark has been doing very well lately,” he says of the Iselin office park, “and the reason for that is it is built next to a train station.”

DaCosta notes that buildings near transit hubs had declining vacancy rates during 2012, winding up at 11.7% at year's end. This compares to a statewide overall vacancy rate that is about double that, according to several market reports.

CBRE said asking rents for these buildings now average $33.32 per square foot, which is $9 per square foot more than the state average.

The trend to creating more efficient work space – and “densification” of the workplace – is the trend of the future, said both executives from the East Brunswick-based firm.

With a total of over 14.6 million square feet of leases expected to roll over in the next 18 months, DaCosta said he expects the pace of deal-making to escalate – and trend to deals for smaller spaces to do so also.