A new Rutgers Regional Report, “Reinventing the New Jersey Economy: New Metropolitan and Regional Employment Dynamics,” authored by James W. Hughes, dean of Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, and Joseph J. Seneca, university professor and economist at the Bloustein School, examines the necessity of transforming and reimagining the state’s suburban office stock to adjust to the emerging employment and business dynamics.
The authors trace the long-term forces that have been changing the shape of regional economic growth. “New Jersey’s structural transformation in the 1980s and 1990s to a knowledge-based, information-age economy proceeded in lockstep with the emergence of powerful suburban growth corridors,” said Hughes. “This 1980s-based office geography evolved into the state’s core economic competency, but the attractiveness of suburban growth corridors may have run its course.”
Hughes and Seneca examine whether trends that have been in existence for the last half century have now been reversed by fundamental changes in locational preferences. “The larger question is whether New Jersey’s office inventory—the once-dominant office parks and other post-industrial “factory” complexes—can be retooled for emerging economic imperatives,” the authors note. “Fortunately, there are still suburban office environments that may be successfully reshaped, reconceptualized, and more importantly, re-tenanted relative to population concentrations and accessibility.”
The complete report examining the previous transformations as well as an analysis of current trends may be found at:https://dev.bloustein.rutgers.edu/reports/rrr/RRR33dec12.pdf.
A new Rutgers Regional Report, “Reinventing the New Jersey Economy: New Metropolitan and Regional Employment Dynamics,” authored by James W. Hughes, dean of Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, and Joseph J. Seneca, university professor and economist at the Bloustein School, examines the necessity of transforming and reimagining the state’s suburban office stock to adjust to the emerging employment and business dynamics.
The authors trace the long-term forces that have been changing the shape of regional economic growth. “New Jersey’s structural transformation in the 1980s and 1990s to a knowledge-based, information-age economy proceeded in lockstep with the emergence of powerful suburban growth corridors,” said Hughes. “This 1980s-based office geography evolved into the state’s core economic competency, but the attractiveness of suburban growth corridors may have run its course.”
Hughes and Seneca examine whether trends that have been in existence for the last half century have now been reversed by fundamental changes in locational preferences. “The larger question is whether New Jersey’s office inventory—the once-dominant office parks and other post-industrial “factory” complexes—can be retooled for emerging economic imperatives,” the authors note. “Fortunately, there are still suburban office environments that may be successfully reshaped, reconceptualized, and more importantly, re-tenanted relative to population concentrations and accessibility.”
The complete report examining the previous transformations as well as an analysis of current trends may be found at:https://dev.bloustein.rutgers.edu/reports/rrr/RRR33dec12.pdf.
A new Rutgers Regional Report, “Reinventing the New Jersey Economy: New Metropolitan and Regional Employment Dynamics,” authored by James W. Hughes, dean of Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, and Joseph J. Seneca, university professor and economist at the Bloustein School, examines the necessity of transforming and reimagining the state’s suburban office stock to adjust to the emerging employment and business dynamics.
The authors trace the long-term forces that have been changing the shape of regional economic growth. “New Jersey’s structural transformation in the 1980s and 1990s to a knowledge-based, information-age economy proceeded in lockstep with the emergence of powerful suburban growth corridors,” said Hughes. “This 1980s-based office geography evolved into the state’s core economic competency, but the attractiveness of suburban growth corridors may have run its course.”
Hughes and Seneca examine whether trends that have been in existence for the last half century have now been reversed by fundamental changes in locational preferences. “The larger question is whether New Jersey’s office inventory—the once-dominant office parks and other post-industrial “factory” complexes—can be retooled for emerging economic imperatives,” the authors note. “Fortunately, there are still suburban office environments that may be successfully reshaped, reconceptualized, and more importantly, re-tenanted relative to population concentrations and accessibility.”
The complete report examining the previous transformations as well as an analysis of current trends may be found at:https://dev.bloustein.rutgers.edu/reports/rrr/RRR33dec12.pdf.