411,000-SF Tower Cleared to Rise

NEWARK-Matrix Development Group has gotten approval for Two Riverfront Center, a 14-story, 411,000-sf office building in this city’s Gateway area. The site is adjacent to the Cranbury-based developer’s One Riverfront Center, a 20-story, 411,617-sf office tower also known as the Legal Center.

And Matrix has given the leasing agency for the new tower to Newmark Knight Frank. Besides the new building, that assignment also includes a four-floor, 100,000-sf block of space in the existing Legal Center building. For NKF, the combined assignment is being headed by managing director Hope Brodsky and executive managing director Tim Greiner of the firm’s Rutherford office.

“We’re hopeful that this appointment will help serve as a catalyst for bringing tenants in from outside the city,” says Matrix VP Hilary Budny. “Exciting changes are taking place in this city.”

“One Riverfront Center offers some of the most sought-after class A office space in the Northeast, and has consistently enjoyed 100% occupancy rates,” says Greiner. “The additional development site at Two Riverfront Center is the only site approved in Newark, and with immediate train access is one of the top new construction sites in New Jersey.”

Attached to Newark Penn Station by covered walkway, the normally full One Riverfront Center’s current approximate 25% vacancy owes to the departure, earlier this year, of one of its major tenants. As reported by GlobeSt.com, the Gibbons law firm moved across the street to Advance Realty Group’s One Gateway Center.

Since that move, Matrix has spent $1.5 million in facilities upgrades at the building, including new HVAC and security systems and a multi-purpose meeting and conference facility. Current tenants include Everest Technology, HDR Engineering and a number of major law firms, and as also reported here, more than 86,000 sf of new, renewed and expanded leases have recently been signed at the building.