Nearly all of the office buildings in North Jersey were built during a 1980s construction boom, and they are therefore roughly the same age. But they have vastly different life expectancies.
Some have been given up for dead and are scheduled for demolition.
Others are past their prime and sit unloved and empty.
But a growing number have been reborn, with head-to-toe renovations designed to please a new generation of workers.
Millennials, and the employers seeking to attract them, want office environments with an urban feel, even if that means creating a mini-downtown within a bland suburban office park by adding such amenities as walkways, restaurants and housing.
In their evolution from the 1980s, the office buildings that “can create that exciting type of environment in the suburbs will be the winners,” said Rutgers Professor James Hughes, dean emeritus of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and an expert on demographics and economic trends.