Third Quarter 2020 / Office New Jersey Quick Stats Vacancy Rates on the rise current headquarters at 100 Tice Boulevard in Woodcliff Lake, to join Modern Meadow, Vacancy rates have risen 60-basis points since Ralph Lauren Corp., and Quest Diagnostics as 10.9% the first quarter of this year to 12.9 percent. New Jersey's unemployment well as Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Market rents rose $.19 year over year to Discovery and Innovation, the Hackensack- rate** (National rate 7.9%*). $30.70/SF. Historically real estate usually trails Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall the economy in a time of recession and we are University, and Seton Hall’s Graduate College starting to see a slowdown with net absorption of Nursing and School of Health and Medical being negative this quarter. As offices begin Sciences at the redeveloped former Roche to reopen, it remains to be seen if this is the Pharmaceutical site. 12.9% beginning of a downward trend or just a bump Overall vacancy rate. in the road. 30 Hudson Street announces Japanese pharmaceutical company two big deals makes a big splash in Nutley As part of a chain of recent real estate In one of the largest deals of the quarter, Eisai transactions in both New York and New Jersey, $30.70 Inc. signed a 306,471 square foot lease at Prism AIG agreed to lease 226,852 square feet of Average Market Rent. Capital Partners’ 200 Metro Boulevard in Nutley. space at the Goldman Sachs building in Jersey The Japanese pharmaceutical City. The 42- story building was opened in company, which focuses on 2004, and is located at 30 Hudson Street, oncology and neurology, will overlooking the Hudson River. The insurance be taking all fifteen floors of 306,471 sf company also announced that they would 1.4 M SIZE OF EISAI INC.'S LEASE be moving their headquarters to 1271 the property and expects to AT 200 METRO BLVD 12 month absorption (SF). transfer up to 1,200 R&D and Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan. corporate jobs by the end of AIG’s lease comes as Merck & Co.’s spinoff, *August 2020 2021. Eisai will be leaving their Organon & Co. announced that they will also **September 2020 Partnership. Performance. avisonyoung.com New Jersey Third Quarter 2020 / Office occupy 110,000 square feet for its headquarters at 30 Hudson this quarter for $32.75 million ($168.90/ SF). The New York-based Street. The new company is anticipated to have a public offering investor purchased the two-building campus from New York Life, next year and will be comprised of Merck’s women’s health, legacy who purchased it in 2007 for $43.7 million. The complex which products, and biosimilars businesses. The lease is expected to be consists of 500 and 550 Hills Drive in Bedminster is 193,900 square signed in the first half of 2021 by WeWork, who will be managing feet and is almost 16 acres. the space, but will have Merck serve as the guarantor. Office Issue Spotlight - Working From Home brings BNP Paribas renews in Jersey City while reducing their some tax topics to the forefront space in NYC Covid-19 has led to many changes in the way companies and BNP Paribas signed a 20-year renewal for their space at the Newport employees do business with a significant number of companies’ Tower in Jersey City. The French Bank decided to keep its 152,488 employees able to sufficiently work from home, many are square-foot presence in Jersey City while reducing its footprint reevaluating the location and footprint of their offices. The at 787 Seventh Avenue in New York City. BNP’s renewal comes at pandemic has accelerated many trends, among them the a time when ownership has begun a $10 million renovation at discussion of two tax topics: The tax deduction for the home office 525 Washington Boulevard as part of their overall ESG strategy and the “Employer Convenience Rule”. throughout their company. Under the IRS’s Publication 587, a taxpayer may deduct expenses for Opal Holdings makes another purchase, this one the use of their home office. To take advantage of this deduction, in Metro Park the office must meet these two factors: 1. The location is used Opal Holdings has kept its foot on the pedal and has made it three for the sole and exclusive use of your business 2. The location is for three in 2020. The New York City-based investment firm acquired a principal place of your business. Generally, the taxpayer would 194 Wood Avenue South in Iselin for $140 million ($297.43/SF), deduct the percentage of the home that is used for the business. making it their third large purchase in as many quarters for Opal. (To view the full publication please click here) The 470,692 square foot property was purchased from AIG who With many people working from their home offices throughout acquired it in 2017. The property is anchored by IBM who occupies the pandemic, there might be a slew of people looking to take 153,394 SF. advantage of this deduction come tax time. For most of those people, they will disappointed to learn that as a result of the 2017 Mack-Cali continues to divest its suburban portfolio tax overhaul, the deduction by employees for home office use was A joint venture between Onyx Equities, Taconic Capital Advisors LP, removed. Axonic Capital LLC, and Machine Investment Group purchased a ten-property Morris County portfolio from Mack-Cali Realty Corp. As a result of so many employees working from home, as well The portfolio included nine properties in Parsippany (1, 3, 5, and 7 as plans by many companies to allow for more employees to Sylvan Way; 4, 6 and 8 Campus Drive; 2 Dryden Way and 2 Hilton work remotely even after the pandemic, there has been a push Court) and one in Madison (1 Giralda Farms) and totals 1,448,420 to make adjustments to the tax code to reflect the new business square feet. The total sale price was $158 million ($109.08/SF) and environment. Proponents of the change have argued that the was financed by a $147.72 million loan from Ares Management “sole and exclusive use of your business” factor is an extremely Corp. This sale by Mack-Cali is part of their strategy to high barrier to meet and unfairly discriminates against the less divest their suburban office holdings and focus on wealthy and apartment dwellers who cannot set aside a portion of their Waterfront assets in Jersey City. The new their residence for the exclusive use of their business. A second ownership group plans on making a series of argument for change has been the shifting of the cost of office $158 M supplies, electricity to power computers, and HVAC systems capital improvements in the hopes of capturing MACK-CALI MORRIS COUNTY tenants that are looking to relocate or expand PORTFOLIO SALE PRICE from closed offices to employees working from home. This is in from New York City. addition to additional “wear and tear” people have put on their homes as a result of the shift to work from home. New York Life sells the Offices at Bedminster While a change to the tax code does not seem imminent, as the Northeast Capital Group purchased the Offices at Bedminster dust settles and the world moves past Covid-19, that tax code will Partnership. Performance. avisonyoung.com New Jersey Third Quarter 2020 / Office hopefully adjust to meet the new realities of the work environment. office. e. The employer does not provide the employee with designated A second tax concept that is getting additional scrutiny is the office space or other regular work accommodations at one of its “Employer Convenience Rule”. This rule states that if a person has a regular places of business. job that is based in one state, but lives and works in another state out f. Employer reimbursement of expenses for the home office. of convenience and not because the employer requires it, they will owe income taxes to the state where their office is. Since, in general, Other factors are: states tax income for work done in their state, taxpayers are at risk for a. The employer maintains a separate telephone line and listing for being double-taxed if their home state does not give a tax credit. the home office. New Jersey residents who work in New York, in general under Section b. The employee’s home office address and phone number are 601 (e) of the New York State Tax Law pay income taxes to New York listed on the business letterhead and/or business cards of the for the portion that they work in New York. The basic formula is the employer. total number of “working days” in New York divided by total “working days” both within and out of New York. A caveat to the rule is that c. The employee uses a specific area of the home exclusively to the days worked out of New York need to be out of necessity or for conduct the business of the employer that is separate from the convenience of the employer and not the employee. For a “workday” living area. The home office will not meet this factor if the area is to count as out of New York the employee must be working at a bona used for both business and personal purposes. fide employer office. d. The employer’s business is selling products at wholesale or and As a result of Covid-19, many New Jersey residents who work in New the employee keeps an inventory of the products or product York are now working from home.