The Short Hills and Summit areas are continuing to flourish for the retail office sectors and as far as I can tell, these locations have been great for the investors that own them. A big part of this is because of the accessibility of these locations to Manhattan. Since Manhattan is just far enough away from the hustle and bustle, but close enough to access at any given time many companies have satellite offices and locations around the Short Hills and Summit areas. Ever since the internet boom, business owners and professionals don’t find the need to work out of Manhattan anymore. Simply put, they can live in the suburbs with their families where there are better school systems, quieter communities, a cheaper cost of living and an overall better quality of life.
Towns like Chatham, Summit, Morristown, Short Hills and Livingston will continue to see growth in their markets for years to come. Office professionals that work in these surrounding neighborhoods can enjoy living 5-15 minutes away from their workplace, make comparable money to Manhattan, and not have the stress that the big city living brings with it. Office presence in towns like these have seen very handsome growth in the commercial real estate industry in the last 20 years. This will continue to flourish because office growth spreads to town population growth, which leads to retail growth and business success, and so on and so forth.
