Key Take Aways from Northern New Jersey’s April 2023 Meeting
• 2022 has been better than 2021 and 2023 looks good so far. Decided to dedicate more time to public works. (Tony Ianuale – Dresdner Robin)
• There’s a lot of competition for new talent. (Tony Ianuale – Dresdner Robin)
• Companies are deciding what to do about office space. Looking for office projects to tour that have desirable spaces. (Tony Ianuale – Dresdner Robin)
• Hackensack went through a big redevelopment. Lots of new apartment units but in the afternoon the streets are empty. (Bill Hanson – NAI James E. Hanson Inc)
• Every project they’ve done they’ve required an office component, and the percentage has grown, which has been successful. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• Continues to be an enormous demand for multi-family. (Tony Ianuale – Dresdner Robin)
• Amenities are important for bringing people back to the office without creating mandates. (Tony Ianuale – Dresdner Robin)
• Lakewood is the biggest success story over the past decade. 40% increase in population and they have built 1 million sq ft of office space that is 100% leased. Orthodox Jewish community is the main reason. (Lucas Grunberger – Tulfra Real Estate)
• Downtown offices are going to be more common than large suburban office space campuses. (Lucas Grunberger – Tulfra Real Estate)
• Dresdner Robin offers a service where they can make visual representations of how a space might look with a video walk through. (Tony Ianuale – Dresdner Robin)
• Relationships with municipalities can be complicated. It’s important to work with municipalities up front to see if they share a vision with a developer. It’s also important to educate municipalities and citizens about the values of a project. Wealthier towns sometimes don’t need the tax revenue but aren’t always thinking long term. Urbanized towns ought to have a different mindset than suburban towns. (Tony Ianuale – Dresdner Robin, Lucas Grunberger – Tulfra Real Estate, Janice Talley – Montclair Township, Bill Hanson – NAI James E. Hanson Inc)
• Interest rates are a major factor in the current market and some deals won’t pencil out. Even some that do aren’t worth the risk. Smaller banks have higher rates and are not looking to lend out a lot of money, which is a consequence of SVB and the banking issues. Some companies have sold a lot of their portfolio in preparation for potential recession. (Tony Ianuale – Dresdner Robin, Bill Hanson – NAI James E. Hanson Inc, Lucas Grunberger – Tulfra Real Estate)
• Things have changed significantly since 2020 and before that since 2016 when they did their last report for Montclair. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• Supermarkets are a desirable part of projects as they are appealing for the towns. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township, Lucas Grunberger – Tulfra Real Estate)
• 2020 census was taken during Covid, so the numbers don’t seem trustworthy. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• Population of Montclair has increased, but only by 2.64%. Median age has continued to increase. There has been a decline in the number of school children. Baby boomers are increasing, 60-74 has increased significantly, as have the Millennials. Overall it’s an aging population and they’re in need of more services. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• Montclair has always had a diverse population and has always had a strong population of African American residents, but that population has been decreasing. There has been an increase in hispanic and Asian populations. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• Montclair has been focusing on affordable housing, which includes a local preference requirement, so that local residents are moved to the top of the waiting list. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• Montclair has recently adopted a rent control ordinance. Trying to keep citizens who live in Montclair in Montclair even as rates rise. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• Census shows that the number of housing units has declined in Montclair, but they have built new units. It also shows average household size has increased but other data shows it has decreased. The numbers may not be accurate due to the pandemic. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• Ratio of owner occupied to renter occupied in Montclair has remained stable. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• New housing units have been mostly multi-family. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• Rents have skyrocketed. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• There is a new ordinance in Montclair loosening ADU restrictions on owner occupants. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• Most new commercial and industrial development in Montclair has been office with some retail. Most of the office space is related to a joint project with Glenridge for Mt. Sinai. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• There have been significant changes in shopping habits, which is seen in changes of activity at the street level. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• Parking hasn’t been an issue. However, there has been a lot of double parking due to increased deliveries and ride share. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• The pandemic has changed the parking and transportation trends. Large reduction in use of train stations, significant reduction in buses and use of parking decks has decreased by a small amount. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• Climate change is affecting weather patterns. There have been local flooding issues during storms. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
• There is new legislation regarding EVs and requirements for municipalities to include infrastructure for EVs in parking lots. (Janice Talley – Montclair Township)
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