Real Estate Journal — Owners, Developers & Managers — Architects & Engineers — July 29 - August 11, 2016 — 17B
www.marejournal.com
M id A tlantic
A rchitects & E ngineers
At the 3rd Annual New Jersey Commercial Real Estate Forecast Summit Kimmerle Newman Architects & Colliers experts discuss office trends at the MAREJ Summit I
300 Kimball Dr. in Parsip- pany kicked off this trend about three or four years ago, taking a dated building and from top to bottom making it light, bright, modern and amenity rich.” Mirliss also cited Overlook Corporate Center in Little Falls. “When potential tenants walk in and see the results of an eight- figure renovation, it resonates with them and they are willing to pay the rent. But as a land- lord, you have to be willing to pay to get there. Buildings that create more of an environment and a brand for themselves are the ones that are going to re- main successful,” he said. Architectural firms have
owners have to assess where technology is going and what these buildings will need. For the younger workforce, that’s what it’s all about,” he said. Mirliss also attributes the New Jersey Economic Develop- ment Authority’s Grow NJ As- sistance Programas a key driver for the state’s office market. “If you look at every major trans- action in the last 24 months, there’s usually an announce- ment about a GrowNJ Incentive attached to it,” he said, adding that the Garden State – particu- larly urban centers of Newark, Jersey City and Hoboken – will continue to attract New York City businesses. n
SELIN, NJ — With New Jersey’s office vacancy rate hovering at around 24%, retaining and attract- ing tenants is top of mind for today’s commercial property owners. Repositioning decades- old buildings to meet tenants’ evolving needs and support a new generation of office worker has become more important than ever before, according to a panel of industry experts who recently participated in the Mid Atlantic Real Estate Journal ’s (MAREJ) 3rd an- nual New Jersey Commercial Real Estate Forecast Summit. A panel entitled, “Office Market Evaluation & Today’s Tenant Requirements,” was moderated by Dennis McCon- nell , executive vice-president of JLL . Panelists included Paul Newman, AIA, CID , partner and vice-president of Kim- merle Newman Architects ; Richard Mirliss , executive managing director of Colliers International ; and Kristine Hurlbut , senior vice-president of leasing at Denholtz Associ- ates . Today’s suburban office buildings – many of which were built in the 1980s – are in a state of transition, the panelists agreed. These assets are being reinvented with sophisticated amenities to bring a downtown urban feel – where everything is at a tenant’s fingertips – into suburbia. “Smart office owners are thinking ahead,” said Newman. “They may have a building to- day that is almost fully rented. However, leases eventually expire and owners are looking at ways to retain these tenants. It goes beyond simple upgrades to ‘urbanizing’ the suburban office building and bringing what’s going on in New York to New Jersey. At Kimmerle Newman Architects, many of our corporate clients are asking for coffee and juice bars in the lobby space, open ceilings, fit- ness centers, polished concrete finishes, bike rooms, and roof- top decks and other expansive outdoor spaces. Everything we are doing is making these buildings cooler, hipper and designed with tenants’ needs in mind for years to come.” And, tenants are willing to pay rents commensurate with the quality of these state-of- the-art assets, said Mirliss. “Tenants are seeking out mod- ern, renovated buildings and occupancy levels in these build- ings are in the 80-90% range.
actively been designing for the Millennial market for many years, but KNA has recently shifted their focus to start planning to accommodate the younger, Gen Z workforce. Looking ahead, that trend will continue, said Newman. “We
will continue to see the usable square footage per person de- cline slightly due to an increas- ingly mobile workforce that can work from virtually anywhere, and often spends more time working remotely more than they do in the office. Building
CELEbRATInG 25 yEARS oF EnGInEERInG ExCELLEnCE!
QUALITY • COMMITMENT • PERFORMANCE
Subsurface Investigations • Construction Inspection and Testing Geotechnical Design & Analysis • Environmental Site Assessments and Remediation • Clean Fill Testing • Carbonate Site Assessments Stormwater Infiltration Testing • Laboratory Soils Testing www.earthengineering.com Corporate Headquarters: 610-277-0880 • Lehigh Valley: 610-967-4540 Central PA: 717-697-5701 • South Jersey: 856-768-1001
Made with FlippingBook HTML5