New Jersey Commercial 
New Jersey’s average asking rents remained stable, edging up in the first quarter to $24.68 per-square-foot, a $0.15 increase year-over-year.
For New Jersey, the demand for industrial space has continued to increase and improve. For the industrial market, manufacturing and construction, 2018 showed a 12% jump in employment. Total available space has also decreased, leaving just 54.3 million square feet unrented with a vacancy rate of 3.3%.
New Jersey’s average asking industrial rents were at an all-time high in Spring 2020 ($8.64 per-square-foot).
Clearly, any surplus supply is being absorbed by a number of big eCommerce companies, one of whom is Amazon, which accounted for more than 1 million square feet of leasing in the first five months of 2020.
Other big lease deals in the first part of 2020 include: Geodis Logistics, 611,320 square feet in Monroe, renewal; and US Elongistics, 570,000 square feet in Flanders, new lease.
Pandemic’s Pathway to the Suburbs
Due to the pandemic, demand for industrial space has increased significantly across the Northeast Corridor. New Jersey’s proximity to New York City, along with its access to major transportation routes and hubs, makes it especially attractive to businesses that need to move quickly to re-establish their operation.
Over two million square feet were added to the base inventory of the industrial market, bringing the total available square footage in New Jersey to 825 million square feet.
Additionally, another trend has emerged and continues to make for increased demand and that is the boom in the e-commerce business.
Currently, New Jersey has posted its lowest availability rate in over a decade.
Office space outside of New York City seems to be in great demand these days. Even flex office spaces as far as Fairfield County, Connecticut, 60 miles North of New York City, is receiving the attention from large New York City-based businesses.
The COVID-19 pandemic has truly created a growing, unexpected demand for office space outside the city proper.
This makes the suburbs of New York City a classic case of a boom-town, as companies scramble for alternative facilities for their workers.
Locations such as Stanford, Westchester, Greenwich, Essex and Bergen counties are all seeing upticks in requests.
The importance of social distancing is causing many flex office spaces and other office spaces to install plexiglass dividers.
How long the demand will remain for many businesses is contingent upon how long it will take to get a vaccine, but the expectation is, such a vaccine is not very close to availability.
