Editor’s Note
Sustained success
As you’ll read in this month’s cover story, the state’s Community Solar Energy Pilot Program has made it both easier and more lucrative for commercial property owners in New Jersey to go green, allowing solar developers to lease their rooftops and sell power to nearby residents. The policy has been critical to the growth of Solar Landscape, a solar developer founded in 2012 that’s been integral to the program’s rollout. Based in Asbury Park, the 10-year-old firm has leased more than 20 million square feet of rooftop space in New Jersey, making it a key player in the commercial real estate market in just a few years.
Buzzworthy
As you’ll read in this month’s cover story, the large, high-profile office deal is alive and well in the pandemic’s aftermath, as blue-chip employers make major investments in their physical footprint. That’s evident by several outsized leases in New Jersey this year of 100,000 square feet or greater, and market experts say there are likely more to come, as corporations look to support their growth while creating a “commute-worthy” environment for its distributed workforce.
Bolstering the ranks
As you’ll read in this month’s cover story, Prologis’ growing team is supporting a portfolio that now spans 44 million square feet across 200 properties in New Jersey and New York. Growing that footprint will come in a number of ways, Harty said, including the types of creative, value-add projects that involve redeveloping former office campuses. That, in turn, requires additional development and construction personnel like the kind that Prologis has added in recent months. And it comes as the company also hires for what’s known as its Essentials platform, which provides services to tenants such as helping them source materials for their building fit-outs, in a bid to engage them “beyond the four walls and the real estate.”
Out of the shadows
In this month’s cover story we highlights the plan to restore and reactivate the property’s long-dormant and long-vacant ferry terminal. The master development team at LCOR envisions it as a unique destination for commuters, city residents and visitors — and as the centerpiece of the plan called Hoboken Connect — which became clearer after I recently toured the space with the firm’s Brian Barry. The building’s second floor, with its 21-foot ceiling heights and a large, column-less floorplate stretching nearly 500 feet, has all the makings of such a destination and the potential to achieve one of LCOR and NJ Transit’s top objectives: opening the terminal to the public while enhancing the commuter experience.
Shifting gears
Camden city officials are now focusing on quality-of-life improvements that they feel will help draw new residents, following decades of population declines and years of corporate and institutional projects spurred by lucrative, often-controversial tax breaks from the state,
