New Jersey submarkets see rise in Class A asking rents

Northern New Jersey’s office market saw “steady improvement” this past year, in addition to an unusual rise in asking rents for Class A office space in a few submarkets, according a new Newmark Knight Frank report. The area’s office market recorded more than 600,000 square feet in net absorption, per NKF’s research report for the fourth quarter of 2019. Average asking rent, meanwhile, rose by 1.4 percent over the past year but “select submarkets [saw] stronger growth in Class A rental rates,” the report said. Asking rents for Class A space in Bergen Central, for one, rose by 6.4 percent — a statistic the report attributed to “low availability, building upgrades and new amenities.” Newark, meanwhile, saw asking rents for Class A space rise by 4.3 percent. Developments like Ironside Newark and renovations at the Gateway Center buildings “are helping to improve Newark’s image, which is starting to give landlords more pricing power,” the report noted. [NKF]