Report finds North Jersey office space is filling up

North Jersey office and warehouse vacancies have been dropping sharply, as more and more businesses take advantage of the strong economy to lease or purchase new space.

Andrew Judd, of East Rutherford-based business real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, says businesses are locating along the Hudson waterfront and the Route 4 corridor.

"They go to locations where forward-thinking landlords are creating amenity-rich locations close to transit," he said. "This whole live-work-play environment that just can't be replicated by some of the older building stock."

He says office leasing is strong for life sciences, legal services and business services.

Judd says sustained demand for warehouse space is driven by e-commerce.

"The good news in New Jersey is we've recovered now from a subpar 2017 and even the first half of 2018 and really the office market kicked in the second half of last year and has continued on pace fueled both by strong demand and consumer confidence and the underlying fundamentals," he said.

Basically, he said, companies need space to house their workers.

Joe Cutter is the afternoon news anchor on New Jersey 101.5