Sean Ryan is associate editor of Real Estate New Jersey

NEWARK-Successes and failures of the condemnation process were examined at a special panel brought together at the Newark Club by the New Jersey chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. Christopher Paladino, president of the not-for-profit New Brunswick Development Corp., says Devco works on a case-by-case basis to minimize relocation--often giving people a better setup at the end of the project.

Devco shut a pizza parlor down for two years, but reopened it at the base of a complex housing 650 Rutgers students. A sandwich shop operator went from renting retail space in a redevelopment area to owning a building four blocks away, becoming landlord to the residential units above. An Ethiopian restaurant moved just across the street, its previous spot now home to an office. Paladino admits that the condemnation process is hard-hitting for the displaced. "Even when it's good, it's brutal."

Dr. Mindy Fullilove presented a counterpoint, in opinions she outlined in her book "Root Shock." It posits that African-American communities are wrecked by haphazard redevelopment, leading to the inadvertent destruction of communities and a raft of mental and economic problems. Her suggestions to help included trying to make the relocation efforts a win-win for all parties. By simple matters such as letting displaced residents pick the door color of the new construction they'll be moving into, residents can see the process as moving up, not out.