RealShare EXCLUSIVE: Industry Insiders Express Cautious Optimism

Joe Cavaluzzi is a contributing writer for Real Estate New Jersey .TEANECK, NJ-The state of the economy was a key topic during the early morning sessions at yesterday’s RealShare New Jersey conference. Approximately 600 attended the event, produced by Real Estate Media Inc., publisher of Real Estate New Jersey and GlobeSt.com.

Port Authority of NY and NJ chairman Anthony Coscia, Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Forrester and a who’s who of New Jersey real estate professionals were on hand to discuss a range of topics. Coscia said the bi-state authority has found itself again after losing 84 employees during the 2001 World Trade Center attacks and is focusing on a few areas of regional economic development. Those include building a transportation network geared to a service economy instead of manufacturing, increasing mass transit use and modernizing systems for moving goods. The PA is targeting 17 brownfield properties around it for warehouse development and investing $300 million to improve security and create a seamless transportation system.

“In September, we broke ground on a $2.2-billion mass transit hub in Lower Manhattan that will accommodate 85,000 people a day,” Coscia said. “The next step will be to invest in substantial retail development in Lower Manhattan. There’s a whole lot that needs to be done. We’ve begun with a very aggressive tempo.”