Other key findings include:

• Over the past five years, 75 class A buildings totaling 28 million square feet have been added to the New Jersey inventory; however, class B and C inventories have shrunk by a combined 4.5 million square feet during this period, with many buildings converted to other uses, such as retail and residential. Overall, class A buildings total more than 88 million square feet and comprise nearly 11% of the market's inventory.
• Class A availability and vacancy have dropped precipitously over both the past five- and 10-year periods. The availability rate has fallen 20% since the third quarter of 2008 to 4.7% in the second quarter of 2018, despite more than 40 million square feet of new Class A product having been delivered to market. Class B/C reductions have not been as steep, so the change has been more muted for the market overall. Since reaching a 10-year peak of 12.2% in 2010, the overall availability rate has since decreased by 520 basis points to 7%.
• Over the past five years, rents for Class A properties have increased by an average of $5.58 per square foot, a growth rate of roughly 110%, from $5.09 to $10.67 per square foot. The large amount of higher-priced, new state-of-the-art construction during this period has contributed to the elevated rates, as it has also pulled up asking rents for second-generation space. In all, the average asking rate for the entire market has risen by $2.74 per square foot, a growth rate of 34%.
• Between 2008 and Q2 2018, class A absorption totaled nearly 49 million square feet, whereas the market overall combined for just over six million square feet. Approximately 60% of the class A net absorption has occurred over the past five years.