Tri-state office market going strong

The tri-state area — Long Island, northern New Jersey, Westchester County and Connecticut’s Fairfield County — is holding stable post-recession and directly competing with Manhattan as it recovers, according to the Observer. Rents are up, even as vacancy rates remain steady.

In Long Island, the majority of action is in Melville and Garden City with the growth of education and health services companies. The vacancy rate for Nassau and Suffolk Counties combined was 10.3 percent at the end of the first quarter, up from the last quarter of 2010.

In Northern New Jersey, average office rents escalated to $24.25 per square foot, a five-quarter high. Quality Technology Services leased a 127,865-square-foot space at 95 Columbus Circle Drive in Jersey City and electronics powerhouse Panasonic announced April 16 that it will move its North American headquarters from Secaucus to a new building, not yet built, on Raymond Boulevard in Newark.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

The average rent rose to $24.95 per square foot in Westchester, according to CoStar. Pepsi Bottling renewed its lease and starting expanding at 1 Pepsi Way in Somers, taking over the entire 540,000-square-foot building that is currently its headquarters.

Rents remain as high as $40 to $42 per square foot in Fairfield County with first-quarter deals including cosmetics giant Beiersdorf, which leased 46,125 square feet at 45 Danbury Road in Wilton, and New York-based Chelsea Piers, who rented roughly 400,000 square feet in Stamford with plans afoot for a new sporting complex (note: correction appended). [NYO]