Leases Signed with Major Retailers and Restaurants at New Jersey Sites

Completion of a series of leases will bring together major retailers, restaurants, financial services tenants, and other uses to sites throughout New Jersey, announced Richard Brunelli, president of R.J. Brunelli & Co., Inc.

In the largest of the deals, the firm brokered a lease on behalf of Work Out World for approximately 30,000 square feet in a Kmart-anchored center in Monmouth County. The fitness chain, which expects to open in the fourth quarter of 2010, will occupy the former Cost Cutters’ space at the 214,000-square-foot property. In Bergen County, the firm brokered a lease for Chase Bank in the Bergen Town Center, which is anchored by Target, Whole Foods, Century 21, and Nordstrom Rack. The company also brokered several other leases, which may be a sign of an economic comeback within the state.

Recently, Brunelli reported that “big box” retail properties that went dark in northern New York’s six major shopping corridors were having a difficult time making a comeback. The vacancy rate in the region reached 8.0 percent in April 2010, as numerous “big box” spaces that went dark in 2008 and 2009 remained empty and small space absorption faltered in the wake of tight credit markets. This compared with a 6.6 percent vacancy factor in the firm’s previous study, which was conducted in February 2009. Of the six highways, only one—Route 4—saw its vacancy rate decline from 2009 levels.