HUDSON COUNTY – According to Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, one of the largest commercial real estate service firms in the world, surging demand and dwindling supply has caused a notable rise in asking rents for office space along New Jersey’s Hudson waterfront,.
In its latest market assessment for northern New Jersey, reported in njbiz.com, the firm said the upswing in demand “has narrowed the supply of options for large tenants,” leaving only six buildings with a large block of space along the river. As such, asking rents in the submarket rose to $36.80 per square foot in the second quarter, up 24 percent from $29.78 at the same time year.
The increase comes as availability in the Hudson waterfront, which includes Jersey City and Hoboken, shrunk to 12.8 percent in Q2 from 13.3 percent in Q1, according to NGKF. The firm recapped the list of factors driving the demand in the 21.7 million-square-foot submarket.
“The Hudson Waterfront continued to see strong demand in the second quarter, as retail amenities, connectivity to mass transit and incentive packages have spurred an uptick in activity,” researchers with NGKF wrote in the market report. “Jersey City captured the largest deal in the submarket this quarter, with Japanese financial giant Mizuho leasing 105,000 square feet at Harborside Plaza 10 in June.”
For all of northern and central New Jersey, average asking rents in Q2 settled at $25.31 per square foot — from the $24.34 a year ago — marking a smaller increase than the one seen along the Hudson River. Overall availability had ticked down to 22.7 percent.
Office rents on Hudson waterfront rising
