Pharmaceutical sector provides lift to Q1 leasing, despite quarterly slowdown

First quarter office leasing activity for Northern New Jersey came in at 2.4 million square feet (msf), up 15.1% year-over-year, but down 4.9% on the quarter. Although overall transactions are taking longer to close given economic uncertainty, significant deals by pharmaceutical companies provided a lift to leasing making Q1 2023 the highest level of volume for the start of any year since 2015. The largest transaction in Q1 was Merck’s sale-leaseback for its entire headquarters, which included 393,000 square feet (sf) of office space at 2000 Galloping Hill Road. Both downsizing in the Morris submarket, Sanofi closed a deal to relocate to 260,000 sf at 100 Morris Street (M Station West building) once completed; and Shionogi Inc. relocated to 47,000 sf within Park Avenue at Morris County from 300 to 400 Campus Drive.

Read the full report