SADDLE BROOK, NJ—So far this year, quarterly demand in New Jersey's office market reflects deal volumes that haven't been seen since before the recession, according to CBRE's Third Quarter 2016 New Jersey Office MarketView Report.

Q3 2016 marked the strongest quarter of leasing velocity since 2007, with 2.78 million square feet of new leasing that resulted from an unusual volume of large deals. The market recorded twelve new lease transactions greater than 50,000 square feet, totaling 1.9 million square feet and representing 68.2 percent of total quarterly velocity. Three submarkets surpassed the 450,000-square-foot velocity mark this quarter: The Waterfront (563,472 square feet), Morristown (510,886 square feet) and Route 287/78 Interchange (451,300 square feet).

“The most recent economic downturn forced transformational change in New Jersey's office market and created a “new normal” for quarterly leasing velocity that had lasted until recently,” says Leo Paytas, senior vice president at CBRE. “That has officially changed in 2016, as the market recorded historically healthy activity with pre-recession levels of demand for office product.”