The Goldman Sachs tower at 30 Hudson St. in Jersey City
By Joshua Burd
Investment manager Lord Abbett & Co. is relocating its headquarters in Jersey City after leasing nearly 180,000 square feet at one of the state’s best-known office buildings.
The deal, which was cited by multiple market reports, will bring the firm to 30 Hudson St. at the 40-story property commonly known as the Goldman Sachs tower. The company will leave its home of more than two decades at 90 Hudson St., about two blocks to the north, where it has been based since moving from Midtown Manhattan.
Representatives from Lord Abbett did not immediately return requests for comment on Monday. The size of its existing space at 90 Hudson was not clear, although the company took three floors for nearly 150,000 square feet at the time of its initial lease there.
Newmark, whose brokers are listed as the leasing team for 30 Hudson, declined to comment on the 178,107-square-foot transaction.
Real estate services firms including JLL, CBRE and Colliers cited the deal in their first-quarter market reports, identifying it as New Jersey’s largest office lease of 2022 to date. It was among several new commitments that contributed to a notable uptick in leasing, especially along the Hudson waterfront, with Collectors Holdings Inc. also taking 130,000 square feet in Jersey City during Q1.
“Nearly 4.2 million (square feet) of tenant requirements were navigating the state’s office market in early 2022, compared to less than 3.9 million (square feet) at year-end 2021,” Stephen Jenco, JLL’s director of New Jersey office research, wrote in the firm’s market report. “Furthermore, heightened focus on employee wellness will lead to increased demand for office space located in newly constructed or renovated buildings.”
The Lord Abbett deal is also the latest in several high-profile commitments at the roughly 1.5 million-square-foot Goldman Sachs tower, a fixture in the Jersey City skyline. In 2020, Merck & Co. spinoff Organon & Co. committed to 110,000 square feet at the property, while insurance giant AIG later took a reported 230,000 square feet.
Goldman, which opened the 42-story tower in 2004 as part of a high-profile move into Jersey City, has been marketing several floors for sublease in recent years after trimming its footprint. The leasing team listed on the building’s website includes Newmark’s Hope Brodsky, Harrison Russell, Hal Stein and Neil J. Goldmacher.
As CBRE noted on Monday, the Lord Abbett deal was a key contributor to a first quarter that saw a rebound in activity by northern New Jersey office tenants, with availability falling by 50 basis points to 23.9 percent.
“As we come out of the global pandemic, New Jersey’s office market has improved by leaps and bounds,” said Robert Norton, a CBRE first vice president. “From robust leasing to the removal of sublease availabilities from the overall supply, and the redevelopment or conversion of antiquated office buildings, the market is well poised to continue to recover over the next few quarters.”
