Retail Vacancy Rate in Northern New Jersey Climbed to 6.6%
With the rash of recent retailer bankruptcies and downsizings adding to an inventory that included unclaimed spaces from earlier failures, the vacancy factor in retail properties along northern New Jersey’s six major shopping corridors jumped to 6.6% during 2008 from 3.6% a year earlier, according to R.J. Brunelli & Co., Inc. Routes 4 and 23 were the only roadways to show an improvement from 2007. While the six-county region remains one of the most vibrant retail markets in the nation, the firm warned that it could take several years for the vacancy factor to get back to customary levels.
In its nineteenth annual study of the northern New Jersey market, the Old Bridge, N.J.-based retail real estate brokerage found 1.84 million square feet of vacancies in the 27.96 million square feet of space studied along the six corridors, with availabilities seen in 118 of the 808 properties evaluated. By contrast, the firm’s 2007 study reported 1.01 million square feet of vacancies in 27.58 million square feet of space. Over the prior 10 years, the region’s rate had stayed in a narrow range of 2.0% in 2002 to 3.6% in 2007.
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