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Real Estate Journal — Commercial Office Properties — February 24 - March 9, 2017 — 17A
M id A tlantic
C ommercial O ffice P roperties
By James Sousa, Weichert Commercial Brokerage Northern/Central New Jersey class A & B office market overview
T
he beginning of the year is a great time to look at trends in the office mar-
updated knowledge of require- ments in the market. In Northern/Central New Jersey, 2016 ended with an overall vacancy rate of 13.8 percent for class A and B of- fice space, according to CoStar Group, Inc. When broken down, the vacancy rate at the end of 2016 for class A projects was 17.7 percent. This is the same rate that was reported in the first quarter of the year. The market for class B projects, however, improved during the course of the year with a year-end vacancy rate of 12.7 percent, compared to a 13.6 percent vacancy rate at the
beginning of 2016. There are other good rea- sons for optimism for the 2017 office market, based on 2016 statistics that show an upward trajectory coming in to the new year. In 2016, there were 40 re- ported lease transactions in the Northern/Central New Jersey market of 50,000 s/f or larger. Of those deals, 18 of them were for more than 100,000 s/f. However, total absorption was tempered slightly by the fact that many of the large deals were made by corporations that were downsizing and therefore vacating larger blocks of space. When it came to pricing, class
A office properties ended 2016 with an average asking rate of $28.58 psf gross, up from the 2015 year-end average asking rate of $27.63 psf gross. In con- trast, class B office properties came in at a year-end average asking rate of $21.88 psf gross, down slightly from the 2015 year-end average rate of $22.18 psf gross. Moving forward, owners of office properties will need to offer more in-house services and amenities to both retain their current tenant base and to attract new tenants to fill their vacancies. Additionally, owners must strive to provide qual-
ity food service, collaborative conference and meeting areas, exercise facilities, common area upgrades and other amenities. Tenants hiring for today’s workplaces are competing for quality employees to staff their companies, and being able to offer a comfortable work environment is of paramount importance them. Weichert Commercial Bro- kerage provides comprehen- sive real estate solutions throughout all aspects of the office market. James Sousa is presi- dent, Weichert Commer- cial Brokerage. n
ket. By view- ing statistics from the pre- vious year, we can bet- ter forecast wh e r e t h e market may be headed . At Weichert
James Sousa
Commercial Brokerage, our diverse portfolio, which ranges from single-story offices to large corporate headquarter facilities, provides us with an in-depth understanding of market conditions and trends, and enables us to maintain an The Bloom Org . presents Outstanding Leasing Brokers Awards for 2016 Mount Laurel, NJ — The Bloom Organization is pleased to recognize one local broker with both of its annual awards for outstanding perfor- mance in commercial leasing within the Bloom portfolio for 2016. Now in its 9th year, the program factors in most properties and square footage leased as a way of reinforcing the importance the firm places on its broker relationships. The Bloom Organization’s Bev- erly Gerber and Michael Lowenberger presented these Outstanding Leasing Broker Awards to Ian Richman of Colliers International . This is the 4th time Richman has received the “most properties leased” award and 1st time recipient of the “most square footage leased” award. Says K.C. Isdaner, chief op- erating officer at The Bloom Organization, “The broker community is extremely im- portant to our success and such recognition is just one way we strive to reinforce and foster these partnerships in a posi- tive way. This year is unique in that one broker has achieved both honors and is also a repeat recipient.” n Shown from left: Beverly Gerber , Michael Lowenberger, and Ian Richman
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