CHATHAM, NJ-Commercial real estate markets are on the mend – and should achieve relative health by 2015 - because the New Jersey economy is gaining serious momentum, even if it “doesn't feel like it,” Cassidy Turley's chief economist Kevin J. Thorpe said at a press briefing here Tuesday.
He said the state is on pace to add 76,000 new jobs this year, which would put it in the top five states for job growth.
Also, Cassidy Turley's preliminary 3rd quarter office market statistics were aired at the session with Thorpe, who is based in Washington, D.C., and New Jersey principal Raymond P. Trevisan. The numbers reflected stabilized or slightly reduced vacancy and prodigious absorption of space in both northern and central Jersey.
“The industrial sector,” added Thorpe, “is on an absolute tear. “ He said the central New Jersey market currently ranks 15th in the country for activity and first in the Northeast.
Next year, the newly signed Economic Opportunity Act will catapult New Jersey to the level of incentives offered by New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, the economist said and he predicted business will be attracted from other states. “This puts New Jersey back on the radar around the country,” Thorpe said.
Both he and Trevisan said they anticipate the new tax-incentive programs to spur significant activity in southern New Jersey and in poorer communities, since it has provisions designed to do just that.
Some of the highlights of the economist's report on the office market include:
- After five years of negative absorption of office space, 1.1 million square feet was absorbed in central NJ and 1 million square feet in northern NJ so far this year.
- Q3 vacancy in NNJ is 15.1% compared to 15.5% at this point last year; in CNJ it is 14.6% compared to 15.7% in 2012.
- Asking rents are still depressed, down slightly from last year in NNJ, to $24.87 per square foot and in CNJ, to $23.65.
- The disparity in vacancy rates is extremely wide, 7.5% in northern Bergen County, 22.9% in Parsippany, 44% in western Morris County.
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