Northern NJ office has had the same vacancy factor for the past 25 years, says Onyx Equities co-founder Jonathan Schultz, a speaker at this week's Bisnow Northern NJ State of the Market event. Want tenants to look at your space? Create an environment where they don't have to spend money (which they'd rather earmark for talent), he says. That's why his company is spending millions on space upgrades.

But sometimes, you really have no choice but to knock down obsolete buildings or start over. (It's like when a wave knocks down one of the turrets from your sandcastle.) Advance Realty director of finance and acquisitions Christopher Bellapianta says there are antiquated office buildings at a 1.2M SF campus it bought in Bridgewater, which will be demolished for mixed-use. “It wasn't worth putting in the capital to reposition,” he says.