Jones Lang LaSalle moves N.J. headquarters to East Rutherford

The company will continue to operate out of three offices in the Garden State, retaining its presence in Parsippany and Woodbridge while vacating its space in Hasbrouck Heights. The new location, at Metropolitan Center, will serve as JLL’s headquarters in the state beginning Dec. 16, when employees from Hasbrouck Heights begin to move to the 14,400-square-foot space.
Robert Kossar, the firm’s New Jersey market director, said the move was driven largely by changes in the office market and its growth plans. While East Rutherford is only a few miles from Hasbrouck Heights, the larger space allows the firm to put its different business lines under one roof, while putting them closer to the Hudson waterfront, Newark and other transit-centric markets that are expected to drive most of the activity.
The new location also dovetails with JLL’s industrial practice, which is focused heavily along the New Jersey Turnpike corridor, Kossar said. And it opted to keep its sites in Parsippany, where it still has a “meaningful” brokerage business for suburban office, and the Metropark section of Iselin, where the firm is expecting growth in both its office and industrial practices.
“There was absolutely temptation to consolidate all three offices,” Kossar said. “We looked it at hard, but the reality is that we found that there was no good central location solution where we could be in and out, and where we could really credibly service all of the markets from.”
JLL, which Kossar said hired some 20 people in New Jersey this year, will ultimately phase in some of the staff from its other offices as it moves in segments such as capital markets, project management and marketing. The East Rutherford space will house about three dozen initially, with space that accommodates more than 55.
Meantime, the new office will effectively serve as a prototype for other future JLL offices nationwide, Kossar said. And its design was spearheaded by the firm’s own workplace solutions staff, allowing it to showcase some of its modern features as JLL sells that service line to its clients in other areas.
Those features include a more open and collaborative environment, a “social hub” and new technology, he said. The space tries to balance openness with private offices — as a continued perk for brokers — “but we want to give people all the reason in the world to get of those offices and experience the rest of the offices, and leverage the rest of the technology.”
“It’s going to take time for people to get comfortable with it … (and) understand how to utilize all of the different technology, but at the end of the day I think everybody is going to be more productive and happier, as a result,” Kossar said.