Transwestern: Tired Offices Can Become Sleek

PARSIPPANY, NJ-As office buildings in transit-oriented centers work their wiles on corporate tenants considering relocation to New Jersey, landlords of high-quality suburban office buildings have to compete by gussying up, says Matt McDonough of Transwestern.

“Cosmetic face-lifts are in order to reinvigorate suburban market interest,” he says. His company is currently concentrating on creating a sleek look at a 300 Kimball Drive, a 13-year-old building in Parsippany.

Cosmetics are not the only component of a makeover – Transwestern also brought the former insurance company headquarters building up to a LEED Silver rating - but they are crucial, says McDonough.

“At 300 Kimball Drive, we took a '90s building and we're transforming it into 2013 building,” he says. “That involved updating systems, a new lobby, adding an exercise facility and re-doing the cafeteria. Just as important, everything is designed to be 2013 sleek.”

The large majority – about 80% of New Jersey's office buildings were built in the '80s and '90s. Even those that were top-of-the-line in their day probably need a different look, McDonough says. “A lot have marbles, granites in their lobbies. Granite is a good thing because it lasts forever, and a bad thing, because it lasts forever – and maybe the color isn't right for today.”

What is 2013 sleek? “The move is away from heavy and dark marble, wood and brass to lighter colors, sleeker finishes, so that everything appears lighter: not big and solid, but rather efficient and clean,” he says.

In McDonough's view, the hallmark example is BASF's headquarters, opened last year in Florham Park. “Glass, steel, open, modern. It's not inexpensive, and it is easier if building from scratch, but that is the look all suburban landlords should be striving for.”

Retrofitting can really be transformative; McDonough cites the example of 105 Challenger Road in Ridgefield Park – a complex originally built by Samsung, later leased to Hartz and then vacated and foreclosed. “It was really tired,” says the Transwestern executive, “especially after it sat for a couple of years.”

“It's very difficult to even get brokers to bring their clients to a building that looks tired,” says McDonough, whose company won the leasing assignment for 105 Challenger last year after it was purchased by a Korean publishing company. “Brokers say: I remember that building. When you arrive, there is a beat-up parking lot, dilapidated landscaping, and it needs a lot of work inside.”

Transwestern employed its construction division to revamp the office building with new lobbies, common areas, café, and a new look to the offices. “Now it has seven floors leased up,” McDonough says.

On the tenant side, Transwestern is currently working with a large company considering the New Jersey market. “Out of the box, we had 12-15 alternatives in the Parsippany area they could have toured,” said McDonough “But anything not renovated got crossed off the list right out of the box.”