A strong first quarter and second quarter and an agile approach to finalizing 41 leasing and sales transactions has resulted in more than 866,000 square feet in closed deals at the midyear mark for Resource Realty of Northern New Jersey, the Parsippany-based commercial real estate brokerage firm.
RRNNJ is active throughout New Jersey as well as New York state and locally, regionally and nationally.
“Investor and user demand are driving optimism for industrial, retail and medical-office properties located within northern New Jersey,” Principal Greg Sabato said. “Strong employment and consumer spending are what drive real estate investment strategies and, given the current climate, will continue to drive flex-light industrial, neighborhood retail and medical office building commercial real estate investing for the foreseeable future.”
Thanks to relative stability and a level of economic resiliency that has carried over into the first half of the year, there is sustained demand among a diverse user and investor pool craving these assets. Among these are institutional entities, private equity, family offices and high net worth individuals, as well as locally and regionally based private distribution companies/materials and goods manufacturers (industrial), lifestyle service providers (retail) and health/wellness entities, such as physician practices and affiliated hospital services groups (medical office).
According to founder and Principal Tom Consiglio, one trend influencing current investor and tenant activity is the higher interest-rate environment.
“During the past 18-24 months, rising interest rates have set the stage for users to compete against institutional investors in acquiring properties for self-occupancy and as a means to control their own costs,” he said. “When there is an interest-rate reversal, these owner/users will be able to refinance at a lower rate while continuing to maintain their in-place operations in a cost-effective, efficient manner.”
During the first half of the year, RRNNJ’s hubs of concentrated activity included the Essex and Morris county submarkets, where the firm’s brokerage professionals recorded a total of 28 transactions. Across the state’s northernmost counties of Bergen and Passaic, RRNNJ also added an additional nine transactions. Of these transactions, three sales involved the disposition of a retail building in northwestern Essex County; the acquisition of a two-story office building in southern Passaic County; and the trade of a fully leased medical office property along Route 10 in Roxbury Township.
Rounding out RRNNJ’s Garden State activity were lease agreements in Somerset (3,588-square-foot office space) and Middlesex (3,350-square-foot retail space) counties as well as 82,000-plus-square-feet in industrial leasing within the Northeast’s newest emerging industrial/warehouse/logistics corridor — the Lehigh Valley/Western New Jersey metropolitan statistical area.
