If somebody is willing to live in an area thats not so trendy, deals are still out there.
What some of us are dealing with is the situation you can see laid out on sites like worstroom.com - the situation for residential spaces in places like SF, NYC and maybe a few others, where costs are sky high. (and I use that term "residential" in a bit of an inappropriate way, as you will see if you look at it.)
Whats best is if you can live close enough to the city (whichever one it is) to get there by reliable, fast, public transportation in a short enough time to work there, without having to pay that much.
Thats getting harder and harder to find but its still out there. Many areas also have large industrial buildings that are not getting used to their full potential.
NJ might be more expensive than Philly, but then again it might not be. The downside is, apart from the downtown areas of the older communities its not that walkable really. People do their shopping in malls.
I wonder if there are spaces in the "Oranges"? Thats the former home of Thomas Edison's laboratory which is now a national monument. They seem to be very welcoming of innovative educational businesses.
Don't know about vacancies or cost. It might well be higher than Philly's environs. Or maybe not. I don't know.
Bloomfield, right next door to Montclair, has a
walk in electronics parts counter, NTE electronics, (website
https://www.nteinc.com ) that handles all the major lines.
Really convenient for a small manufacturer to have that nearby.
Although many NJ areas are 'walkable' to a point, some areas more than others, realistically, unless she really planned things out, she would need to have a car to get around, especially when it comes to shopping for groceries, etc.
Any car that passed the quite thorough inspections. Meaning one with low emissions, etc. Any car manufactured in the last 15-20 years or so would likely pass. A tiny car - ideally a hatch-back, would be fine.
One big plus is, its not that trendy, compared to NYC, SF, etc. Not by a long shot. But its still pricey compared to many other areas. So, hard to say whether it would be a good choice.