Silverman Group taps JLL to market Morristown built-to-suit office

Jones Lang LaSalle, which closed this week on its $2 billion buy of HFF, has began marketing 110,000 square feet of built-to-suit office space in downtown Morristown, NJBIZ reported. The brokerage is working on behalf of Basking Ridge-based Silverman Group, which hopes to develop new office space atop the existing 27,790 square feet of retail space it owns at 58 South Street and 10 Pine Street. JLL’s Frank Recine, Blake Goodman and Jon Compitello will oversee the assignment, according to NJBIZ. Silverman has planned a 290-space mechanical parking deck on a parking lot already on the property. RE-NJ reported that the developer has tapped Marchetto Higgins Stieve Architects for the site, which will occupy 1.6 acres and will become the first air rights development in Morristown. Morristown Green reported earlier this month that Silverman is suing Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty for allegedly trash-talking the firm’s proposal and, ultimately, killing its plan to bring the Garden State headquarters of global accounting firm Deloitte to South Street. Dougherty allegedly called Silverman a bully for trying to pressure local officials into approving a project he claimed would destroy downtown Morristown. According to research from CBRE, the Morristown submarket had 258,000 square feet of leasing activity in the first quarter of this year, with an availability rate of 22.4 percent and an average asking lease rate of $27.99 per square foot. [NJBIZ]