As you’ll read in this month’s cover story, builders and advocates see New Jersey’s new affordable housing guidelines as a good starting point after more than a decade of uncertainty, conveying cautious optimism even as they confront the financial hurdles, legal battles and political debates that have slowed housing production in the past.
Editor’s Note
Hear directly from Editor Joshua Burd as he brings you the highlights of this month’s issue of Real Estate NJ and his observations from recent interviews.
Transition time
I’ve come to learn that stories in our People on the Move section are among our most popular online and in print. I understand why — relationships in commercial real estate go back years or decades in many cases, meaning there’s no shortage of interest when a friend or business partner earns a promotion or a position at a new firm. That’s especially true when it comes to developers and owners, as I was reminded earlier this year when we covered two major moves by Accordia.
The right mix
It may well be decades before New Jersey’s suburban office market is no longer overbuilt. That is, of course, assuming that property owners and local officials find the type of common ground needed for redevelopment, as we try to highlight when we come across those stories. We have one such example in our latest issue.
Sprucing it up
New Jersey is largely built out, at least as far as the best locations are concerned, meaning redevelopment is often the only option. That’s driving a series of new investments by shopping center owners that have secured new deals with supermarkets and other big-box tenants. Those landlords are now renovating their assets in conjunction with the new anchor leases, which figures to help attract new retailers to those properties.
Bearing fruit
I’m as guilty as anyone of overusing words like “transformative” when it comes to major redevelopment projects. But it seems in some instances like there’s no avoiding it. A case in point is a plan for Woodbridge’s Metropark train station, where surface parking lots will become a new office and ambulatory care center spanning nearly 250,000 square feet, as well as 235 luxury apartments and retail space. If you ask me, that seems transformative enough.
Our cover story this month is a deep dive on that project, which Hackensack Meridian Health unveiled in early March alongside Gov. Phil Murphy and a team that includes Russo Development, Onyx Equities and Dinallo Development.
A closer look
I’d venture to say that green design is still underappreciated as a practice and as an industry within the broader commercial real estate sector. I’ll even take some ownership of that, as someone who is meant to highlight where the market is and where it’s going in the great state of New Jersey, including the increasingly important topic of sustainability. That’s our focus in this month’s cover story, where we explore some of the more cutting-edge, eco-conscious features that multifamily builders are weaving into their projects. That includes everything from rainwater recycling to on-site composting systems that produce fertilizer for landscaping, as we find in a new luxury rental property in Jersey City. Halpern Real Estate Ventures, the developer of what’s known as Birch House, says those choices stem from the firm’s own corporate philosophy and a desire to meet the market where it’s going, even if those features are not quite widespread in New Jersey (not yet, anyway).
Meeting a need
There’s a group of towns in New Jersey that have the ultimate name recognition for those who live nearby or even those outside the state. As many of our readers can attest, Montclair is clearly one of those communities, with the vast selection of shops, restaurants and cultural spots that line its downtown and residents who are as engaged as any in the state. As you’ll read in this month’s cover story, Montclair is also increasingly popular with office tenants, but with a lack of Class A space, those requirements are largely going unmet. BDP Holdings aims to change that with a newly unveiled project known as The Iris, a proposed ground-up development that would include 124,000 square feet of office space, street-level retail and structured parking — all of it in the heart of the central business district.
Another chapter
As you’ll read in this month’s cover story, the city of New Brunswick ended 2023 on a high note when Nokia announced that it would become the new home of its iconic Bell Labs division. The company, which will move from its historic campus in the Murray Hill section of Union County, plans to occupy a built-to-suit, 360,000-square-foot research tower at the new HELIX campus by 2028. It’s slated to do so under a lease with SJP Properties, which will build the facility in partnership with New Brunswick Development Corp., the project’s master developer, in a signature deal for the city and for the three-building, multibillion-dollar redevelopment project.
