NJ TRANSIT HUB PERSPECTIVE | MID-YEAR 2019
Hoboken / Jersey City
With 18.3 million square feet of rentable office space, the
Hoboken/Jersey City area is the largest transit hub market
in Northern and Central New Jersey. Nearly 90.0 percent of
this inventory consisted of Class A buildings. After climbing
to 19.4 percent in 2016, a rebound in leasing velocity exerted
downward pressures on the Hoboken/Jersey City Class A
vacancy rate. By year-end 2018, the Class A vacancy rate had
fallen to 17.3 percent, where it remained through mid-2019.
Banking/financial services firms accounted for more than 70.0
percent of the leases signed in the Hoboken/Jersey City market
during the past year. Among the notable transactions was TD
Ameritrade’s leasing of 207,700 square feet at 70 Hudson Street
in Jersey City. The brokerage firm relocated its operations from
nearby Harborside 4A. In addition, JPMorgan Chase subleased
148,520 square feet at 480 Washington Boulevard in Jersey City.
E*Trade Financial Corporation also signed a 106,000-square-foot
renewal and 26,000-square-foot expansion at Harborside Plaza
2. The online brokerage and financial services firm received
a 10-year $20.0 million tax credit to move 250 jobs from the
Philippines to Jersey City.
With an average asking Class A rent of $45.60 per square foot,
Hoboken/Jersey City maintained the highest rental rate among
the state’s transit hub markets. This rental rate was more than
$7.10 above the transit hubs’ average asking Class A rental
rate. Rents in the Hoboken/Jersey City market are expected to
continue trending upward as landlords boost asking rents for
spaces in buildings undergoing renovations and improvements.
Net new supply
While Jersey City’s office market footprint has remained stable
for more than a decade since the development of Goldman
Sachs’ office tower at 30 Hudson Street, new residential
developments are attempting to keep up with the city’s growing
population. With a 9.4 percent population increase since
the 2010 U.S. Census to an estimated 265,550 people, Jersey
City boasted the highest growth rate out of any New Jersey
municipality. Access to Manhattan via mass transportation
options that include the ferry and PATH rail line have fostered
surging population growth, while tax abatement programs
encouraged developers to unleash a wave of residential
projects. To incentivize development from the waterfront area
and into more inland neighborhoods like Journal Square,
longer-term abatements were introduced by Jersey City.
Net absorption
total vacancy
600,000 22.0%
300,000 20.0%
0
18.0%
-300,000
16.0%
-600,000
14.0%
-900,000
12.0%
-1,200,000
-1,500,000
2015
2016
2017
2018
Mid-2019
10.0%