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The Arbors @ Parsippany recently underwent a $10 million capital improvements campaign, adding amenities to offer employees more than a space to occupy from 9 to 5 and attracting new tenants as a result.

A new long-term lease with Fein, Such, Kahn & Shepard PC was announced June 19 by Onyx Equities. Under the 11-year agreement, the law firm will occupy 16,500 square feet of space.

According to FSKS’s website, it currently has three offices: one each in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. In the Garden State, the firm is already based in Parsippany at 7 Century Drive. FSKS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about when its move within the Morris County municipality is expected.

A Cushman & Wakefield team of Raymond Trevisan, Courtney Rosenkrantz, Benjamin Brenner and Mark Zaziski handles leasing for The Arbors @ Parsippany, according to the property’s website. That firm was tapped to handle the assignment in July 2022.

Since acquiring the 60-acre, five-building campus located at 1-3-5 Sylvan Way and 4 and 6 Campus Drive, Onyx said its efforts at the Class A property have resulted in 181,000 square feet of leased space, including renewals with Humanscale Corp. and Ricola USA cough drops.

“We recognize that today’s concept of ‘The Office’ must be more than just a place to work,” said Jonathan Schultz, co-founder and managing principal of Woodbridge-based Onyx Equities. “By investing in our infrastructure and creating desirable amenities, we are not only improving the physical space of our building, but also creating an energetic environment for our tenants as they look to stand out in a competitive market and attract employees back to the workplace.”

Efforts to reposition the campus date to back to 2021. On-site amenities at The Arbors @ Parsippany include:

• A 5,200-square-foot state-of-the-art fitness center
• ­­Three newly renovated cafes
• Outdoor activities, including wiffle ball and cornhole
• 1.5 miles of natural trails and paths for walking, biking and hiking
• Underground access between buildings
• Covered parking
• Community events that are available to tenants, such as a concert series, summer barbeque, putt-putt in the park, access to food trucks, a weekend farmers’ market, Italian ice and ice cream socials, campus-wide fitness challenges, and more

According to Schultz, tenants are looking for spaces that satisfy their work needs, while also helping to recruit and retain talent. “By offering amenities like a fitness center, on-site café, outdoor green spaces, and networking event programs, we’ve created a dynamic destination that people enjoy coming to everyday,” he said. “This is what the future of office space looks like.”

Building upgrades include new roofs, new rooftop HVAC systems, mechanical systems, and redesigning the entryways of the five buildings into open multistory granite and glass atriums. Additionally, Onyx said its extensive COVID-19 safety measures have been recognized with the Hackensack Meridian Health Keeping America Safe “Seal of Approval” certification.

As office vacancies persist, particularly in the wake of reevaluations of how and where people work following the shakeup from COVID-19, Onyx has experienced success elsewhere in Morris County, signing Morgan Stanley and Zelis for a combined more than 169,000 square feet of space in Morristown in September at another property that has received millions in improvements.

In Parsippany, Cushman & Wakefield pegged the overall vacancy rate at 34.7% for the first quarter of 2023 with an average asking rent of $29.31 per square foot for Class A space –below the North Jersey average of $36.58 per square foot. The report found a continuation of the flight to quality within the sector, with more than half (55.5%) of all leasing activity in Q1 coming from Class A properties.

Located at the crossroads of major roadways including Interstates 80, 280 and 287; U.S. Routes 46 and 202; and New Jersey Routes 10 and 53, The Arbors @ Parsippany is a five-minute drive to the Morris Plains NJ Transit station, with bus service available during the work week.

Since its founding in 2004, Onyx has acquired more than $4 billion worth of diverse real estate assets throughout New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, and has executed over $1 billion in capital improvement projects under its signature repositioning program.