Mack-Cali Breaks Ground on Harborside 10

JERSEY CITY-It was one of New Jersey’s “deals of the year” for 2000 according to Real Estate New Jersey, GlobeSt.com’s sister publication. Charles Schwab & Co. signed on for 300,000 sf at Mack-Cali’s Harborside 10 on this city’s waterfront. Not long after that, Schwab agreed to prelease the rest of the 575,000-sf class A building, one of five buildings making up the 2.7-million-sf Harborside Financial Center, of which 2.1 million sf is already up and operating.

So yesterday’s groundbreaking for Harborside 10 should have been a happy event. Instead, ground was broken and lunch was served against a backdrop of rumors that the sublet trend had spread from Manhattan to Jersey City. Specifically, one published report had Schwab preparing to unload half of its commitment at Harborside 10 to anyone willing to sublease the space.

Realistically, the Jersey City office market, now the country’s 11th largest, has a vacancy rate of a scant 0.41%, so the space shouldn’t be too tough to unload. But the platitudes offered at the ground-breaking lost some luster given the rumors. Mack-Cali spokesperson Virginia Sobel told reporters that “we haven’t been notified of any sublease plans.” A subsequent call to Mack-Cali was not returned.