New Jersey’s struggling office market is facing another big challenge: the exodus of millennials.
Landlords have faced numerous hurdles during the past decade, from the recession to vacant corporate campuses left behind after company consolidations. The latest is an “alarming” outflow of young workers from the state, according to a report from real-estate services firm CBRE Group Inc.
Attracting and retaining millennial employees has been a priority for companies making real-estate decisions, brokers and analysts said.
“If a certain amount of millennial talent is not here, companies will look elsewhere,” said William Forcello, CBRE research manager and one of the authors of the report.
The preferences of the millennial generation, typically those born between the early 1980s and late 1990s, already have placed New Jersey’s largely suburban office buildings in a tough position. This younger workforce is known for favoring urban settings and workplaces that are close to where they socialize.
New Jersey’s millennials are concentrated along the state’s waterfront in locations such as Hoboken, Jersey City and Newark, offering downtown communities and plentiful transit connections to New York City.