Jersey City Vies to Up Its Game in Office Market

By Keiko Morris

Jersey City isn't the fashion industry's new Garment District or Midtown South, the hot spot for technology and advertising firms.

But New Jersey's second-largest city has been making the case that it is an up-and-comer in the office-space market, attracting clothiers and publishers as well as building on its base of financial-services companies.

The growing diversification, taking place at Jersey City's waterfront, is being attributed by real-estate experts and landlords to a combination of factors: New York City's rising rents, generous state incentives and the booming residential development in that area.

In just the past several months, apparel company Charles Komar & Sons Inc. signed a lease to move its offices and showroom from three sites in Manhattan after receiving a 10-year, $37.2 million economic-development tax grant from New Jersey. Also receiving 10-year state incentive packages last year were Forbes Media LLC for $27.1 million and VF Sportswear Inc. and its subsidiaries for $13.1 million.

As for leasing more space to the financial sector, Jersey City landed J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and RBC Capital Markets last year as well with the help of $303.6 million in state tax credits over a decade. J.P. Morgan, which already had operations in the city, has promised to create 1,000 jobs and RBC already has begun to move some of about 900 positions.

In 2013, New Jersey merged its economic-incentive programs and has aggressively used tax credits to bring and retain jobs, and spur development.

Since then, the state has announced more than $430 million in tax grants, which will be awarded over time, to attract and keep companies in Jersey City. Those incentives are expected to bring more than 3,000 jobs.

"In 2000, when you had the first big wave of office occupancy coming to Jersey City, a lot of that occupancy was financial services, broadly speaking," said Harrison LeFrak, vice chairman and principal of LeFrak, which developed and owns much of the Jersey City waterfront megadevelopment of residential towers, offices and retail space called Newport. "Today, it is becoming very financial technology-focused and we are starting to see retail and apparel companies."

Attracting different kinds of sectors is making the Hudson waterfront even more of a bright spot in New Jersey's otherwise weak office market. More suburban areas have been weighed down by older office parks that once were home to pharmaceutical and telecommunication companies.

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Jersey City Vies to Up Its Game in Office Market