While the business world has seen tremendous growth over the last year unlike anything we have seen in decades, the small and medium-sized business owners we work with are trying to understand the business landscape in front of them.  While the pundits may wonder about the impacts of record Dow and Nasdaq numbers or the effects that AI will have on future job performance, the folks we talk to here in the Garden State are more focused on the impacts to their immediate bottom line and activity in 2026.

          New Jersey is a mature State, where the great majority of its office and industrial infrastructure is already in place.  There has been almost no new construction in New Jersey for decades, apart from a recent flurry of nationwide demand over the last several years for warehouse. Readers of this newsletter understand the seismic changes that have occurred to the New Jersey office and industrial markets since Covid 19, but for those who may be new to all this let me summarize.

          The office market nationwide and here in New Jersey has been consolidating.  Today, we can clearly see the winners and losers in this battle for relevance and survival.  The surviving well capitalized office developers are upgrading their aging properties to attract new long-term turnkey tenants.  Developers with less available capital have been forced to choose a riskier short-term lease model where its tenants occupy existing space with little or no renovation work on the part of the Landlord. 

          Industrial space, particularly the small and medium-sized units, are still in great demand.  In recent years we have seen a frenzy of development and arrival of new Class A warehouse properties, the pace of which has finally begun to slow down the strong demand and skyrocketing prices.

          Real estate operating expenses are still the second highest expense that a company will incur right behind personnel.  For business owners with leases expiring in 2026, whether office or industrial, full-time or hybrid, they will need to get their arms around the realities of the new normal to accurately plan and budget for the coming years.

          We at Dickstein Real Estate Services have been working with tenants and buyers of commercial real estate for more than 30 years.  As one of the last of the pure tenant/buyer brokers, we are proud of our track record of working closely with our tenant/clients to provide effective strategies and conflict-free advice.

          If you would like to speak with us about ways in which we can help your business to win in 2026, why not give us a call and find out why, at Dickstein Real Estate Services, OUR DIFFERENCE IS YOUR ADVANTAGE®.

Regards,

Lawrence Dickstein