Life sciences firms fuel Garden State’s Q1 office leasing market

Life sciences companies signing a pair of leases in Morris and Somerset counties helped drive New Jersey’s office leasing market to new heights during the first quarter of 2019, according to a new report by Newmark Knight Frank. The real estate services firm noted that 578,933 square feet of office space were absorbed in the first three months of this year, far exceeding the five-year quarterly average of 85,455 square feet. Real Estate NJ reported that Celgene spinoff Celularity inked the largest office lease deal to date in the northern New Jersey submarket when it took 147,000 square feet at 170 Park Avenue in Florham Park, followed by Irish biopharmaceutical company Amarin taking 67,747 square feet at 440 Route 22 in Bridgewater. NKF said availability in northern New Jersey was its lowest in a decade at 22.2 percent, a decrease by one percentage point year-over-year. NKF reported 16 midsize leases — between 30,000 and 60,000 square feet — were leased in the first quarter, noting that they added up to 700,000 square feet of leasing activity. The NKF report cited the $170 million sale of 570 Washington Boulevard in Jersey City to iStar as having the highest purchase price per-square-foot at $472. NFK’s report said that the Newark and Meadowlands submarkets had the highest square footage under construction at 365,729 and 340,000 square feet, respectively. [Real Estate NJ]