EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ−Office rents were up over the past 12 months, says JLL, primarily because new blocks of space with higher asking rents became available.

The average asking rental rate for Class A space was $27.64 per square foot in the first quarter of 2014, an increase of 69 cents per square foot from one year ago, according to East Rutherford-based JLL. Class B rents ticked 5 cents higher from a year ago to $20.60 per square foot.

The Hudson waterfront office market had the lowest vacancy rate for Class A space - 16.3% - and the highest average asking rental rate at $36.92 per square foot. There was 116,700 square feet of absorption of empty space in the first quarter in the submarket. Contributing to the absorption was Forbes Media's leasing of 92,720 square feet at 499 Washington Boulevard in Jersey City.

The media company got a $27.1 million Grow NJ tax incentives award to move from Manhattan.

In Newark, vacancy rose to 22% as of March 31, compared to 8.5% one year before. That increase was fueled by Prudential's impending move to its 740,000-square-foot headquarters building under construction near Military Park. Prudential is vacating space in three of the Gateway Center buildings and landlords there are marketing big blocks of space.

Companies being wooed to the Gateway buildings are expected to take advantage of the state's beefed-up economic incentives program as well. The new program allows more businesses to qualify for tax credits when creating or relocating jobs to the Garden State.

Instant Insights /

JLL: Higher Class Vacancies Raise Average Rents

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