Leasing activity in New Jersey office buildings reached its highest first-quarter level since 2007 during the first three months of 2011, according to a report from CB Richard Ellis today, though activity was down from where it was during the fourth quarter of 2010. Lease renewals accounted for 47.1 percent of those transactions. Half of all new office leases were signed in New Jersey’s waterfront and Route 287/78 submarkets, CBRE said, but outside those areas, new space is still flooding the market more quickly than it is being absorbed. TRD [more]

If you think that the commercial leasing velocity has slowed down in
Manhattan, all you have to do is look across the Hudson River to New
Jersey and see an office leasing market that has been on life support
for the past few years. According to a recent report issued by CB Richard Ellis on the New
Jersey office market, leasing velocity continued to decline in the
first quarter of this year, asking rents slipped and availability rates
increased from last quarter, closing at 20.43 percent, the first time
the market has hit 20 percent since 2004. In a conference call with analysts, Mack-Cali Realty, one of the
largest owners of office space in New Jersey, noted that rents rolled
down during the quarter by about 6.1 percent compared to the fourth
quarter of 2008. In its core markets, North and Central New Jersey, the
company had roll downs of 6.4 percent and 7.5 percent respectively. [more]