State and city officials made a pitch about why Trenton is a good place to open or grow a business
TRENTON -- State and city officials on Friday made a pitch to real estate developers and investors about the inventory of properties and tax incentives available to them, hoping to make the case that Trenton is ripe for business investment.
"We need folks like yourself to take a second look, even a third look at Trenton and understand why the lieutenant governor repeatedly says, 'Now is the time to get on board,'" Mayor Eric Jackson told the audience gathered. "Great things are happening and I invite you to be a part of that and I will assure you ... we will streamline your efforts to do good business here in the city."
The event was cosponsored by Greater Trenton, the new public-private economic development organization, and the New Jersey Partnership for Action.
The partnership, which is made up of the state's Business Action Center, Economic Development Authority and secretary of higher education as well as the nonprofit group Choose New Jersey, works collaboratively to attract business, generate jobs and smooth the way for businesses looking to invest in the state.
Tim Lizura, the president and chief operating officer of EDA, described two main incentive programs that he says would make moving to a depressed urban area like Trenton a viable option for companies.
The first, Grow New Jersey, allows any company to apply for 10-year tax credits, as long as it is considering moving in or out of the state and meets other requirements. The amount of credit varies depending on the location, size of the work force, wages and other criteria, but because Trenton is a designated growth zone, projects in the city can receive up to a maximum of $15,000 per job per year for up to 10 years.
For example, when the Hibbert Group considered moving 259 jobs to Langhorne, Pa., the state offered the company a 10-year, $33.6 million tax-incentive package to convince it to remain in the city.
The second program, Economic Redevelopment and Growth, hopes to lure developers and businesses by addressing revenue gaps in development projects.
"At the end of the day, developers have choices about where they can invest their time and money," Lizura said. "If you can't get the return for that investment, you're going to go someplace else where you can."
Diana Rogers, the city's acting director of Housing and Economic Development, highlighted more than a dozen vacant lots and other properties that are or will become available to developers.
The sites vary from parking lots and garages, the Horsman Doll Factory and Roebling Block 2 to the state's agriculture, health and taxation buildings that are slated for demolition.
"We don't have a supply issue as you saw," said George Sowa, Greater Trenton's founding CEO. "There's plenty of supply here. We need to collectively generate the demand. Because we can build buildings collectively all day long, but if you don't have the user groups to come in and occupy them, it just doesn't happen.
"We need to make sure to the extent that we have sites out there, that we get companies and individuals to come work here, live here and play here and put in place the infrastructure so people will look at this city in a very positive light," he continued.
David Henderson, one of the partners involved in the much-touted Roebling Lofts, said the city needs to capitalize on the trend of millennials wanting to move into cities.
"We wouldn't be doing the project we're doing in Trenton if it weren't for this national trend," he said of the 138-loft project. "We've all heard 'Now is the time for Trenton' and it wasn't, but now really is. And it's not because we made it up to be. It's a national demographic trend supported by real hard numbers and this is New Jersey's opportunity to stay relevant and capture the growth that will occur over the next 10, 15 years."
Some of the development opportunities on city- and state-owned properties include:
- 123-125 and 215-237 North Broad St.
- 258-264 North Warren St.
- 29-53 Oxford St.
- 80 Oakland St.
- Bell Boy Cleaner, 300-310 Prospect St.
- Trenton City Hall's surface parking lot, 319 East State St.
- 300, 356 and 366 Enterprise Ave.
- Front Street Garage, 120 East Front St.
- Horsman Doll Factory, 350 Grand St.
- Merchant Street surface parking lot, 24 Merchant St.
- New Jersey Department of Agriculture, South Warren St.
- New Jersey Department of Health, South Warren St.
- New Jersey Division of Taxation, 160 South Broad St. and 43-51 West State St.
- Perry Street surface parking lot, 350 Perry St.
- 942 Prospect St.
- Roebling Block 2, 670 South Clinton Ave.
Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.