ACE Group will on Monday open a new 40,000-square-foot office at 10 Exchange Place, in Jersey City, as part of the company’s ongoing U.S. growth strategy and an expansion of its New Jersey operations. The Swiss insurance company has three existing offices, in Cherry Hill, Madison and Morristown.

(Cushman & Wakefield photo)

Working out of the new office will be 130 specialized insurance, legal, claims and underwriting employees; the majority of the positions are being relocated from several New York-based offices, according to Carla Ferrara, a company spokeswoman.

“This move presents an opportunity for ACE to get closer to our customers by moving into a new region in eastern New Jersey,” she said.

The arrival of ACE in Jersey City is also a boost to the local office market, said David Stifelman, an executive director at the East Brunswick office of commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield.

“Jersey City is truly a viable option for New York City tenants” who have been attracted to the city’s transportation access and modern, efficient buildings, he said. Office properties cost about 40 percent less to operate in Jersey City than in Manhattan, he said.

While the Jersey City office submarket has seen a steady rise in vacancy over the past two years, “it pales in comparison to other markets in New Jersey,” said Stifelman, who worked on the ACE Group lease, which closed in the fourth quarter of last year. The office vacancy rate in Jersey City is still in the single digits, compared to vacancies of 20 percent or 30 percent elsewhere in the Garden State. “From a vacancy perspective, it’s still the healthiest market in the state.”

With the opening of its Jersey City office, ACE will now have approximately 280 employees at its New Jersey regional offices. The insurer has more than 15,000 employees worldwide.

E-mail Evelyn Lee at elee@njbiz.com

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story gave the wrong size of the new property. It should have read 40,000 square feet.