Page 22 - Vol.5 No. 7 July 2021

20 JULY 2021
After more than a year of watching tenants work remotely — and enjoying
the freedom
Equities. “We live in this matrix that we wake up every day and we get to work — sometimes it’s an hour or an hour and a half, depending on where you live — and we’ve gotten used
to now not having that. And that’s a shock to the system, in a good way.”
Employers are now hoping to find a middle ground in the coming months, as they determine how best to bring workers back to the office. While that strategy is still taking shape, occupiers have already begun to weigh their post-pandemic options
in places such as Jersey City, driving an uptick in building tours and the prospect of new leasing activity.
“Once the vaccination rates started hitting a mark where you started seeing cases drop, we’re seeing a lot of companies — small, medium and large — planning for what their future
pandemic levels down there.”
DeMatteis and Schultz spoke in mid-June at the Jersey City Summit, which was hosted virtually, as they and other panelists debated the future of office usage along the Hudson waterfront and elsewhere. Tenants seem increasingly focused on taking a hybrid approach, they said, meaning there is still an opportunity for landlords with fundamentally strong buildings.
That makes firms such as Onyx Equities, a Woodbridge-based developer, investor and manager, no less bullish on the office sector despite the upheaval caused by COVID-19.
SIGNS OF LIFE
Panel: Interest in office space picking up
as employers mull re-entry plans, hybrid schedules
By Joshua Burd
that comes with it — Jon Schultz doesn’t feel they’re inherently against going back to the office.
Jon Schultz
is going to look like,” said David DeMatteis,
an executive director with Cushman & Wakefield. “And each week that goes by, that time horizon
Instead, he said, much of it has to do with one simple question.
“Who wants to commute and sit in traffic?” said Schultz, a co-founder and managing principal of Onyx
David DeMatteis
seems to be shortening, so we’re back to showing buildings three to four
to five times a week, which is pre-
With the COVID-19 pandemic receding, employers considering how best to bring workers back to the office have already begun to weigh their options in places such as Jersey City, driving an uptick in building tours and the prospect of new leasing activity.