"Between all of the regulations over the last few years and what is proposed now, there are only 88,000 acres in NJ left for development," Zangari said.
And in his first speech since be named to head Gov. Jon Corzine's Office of Economic Growth, New Jersey's new economic czar, Jerold L. Zaro, used his keynote address to outline emergency economic incentives the governor would reveal several hours later.
The governor's stimulus package includes a $250 million allocation to banks to help builders whose projects have stalled because of the credit crisis. "I can tell you the Corzine administration is focused on one four-letter word right now and that's jobs," Zaro told the approximately 600 real estate executives.
Zaro also pledged work with the real estate industry. "I am one of you guys. I understand your concerns," said Zaro, 57, an attorney and developer who has chaired the NJ Highway Authority and served on the Sports and Exposition Authority. "The real estate community is going to have a friend and ally in the statehouse."
He noted that Corzine's incentives include suspending state sales and using taxes on commercial properties that add jobs and allocating "major sums" to stave off home foreclosures in a program that might include the state buying back homes from distressed homeowners.
The other initiatives Zaro spoke about Thursday included a new program to provide small companies of up to 500 employees $3,000 for each new hire; Corzine's intention to stimulate school, road and bridge work as well as construction of a new ARC tunnel into Manhattan; a $10-million allocation to help low-income residents pay for heat this winter, and $2.5 million to help the state's food banks.
The governor also supports streamlining the permitting process for development by outsourcing environmental inspections for non-major developments, Zaro said, and by appointing a point person to guide major development applications through the bureaucratic process of various state agencies.
The Smart Growth Economic Development Coalition's 12-bill legislative stimulus package includes calls for strengthen the state BEEP and BRRAG programs to attract and retain jobs, respectively.
"We are looking for legislation to eliminate some of the caps on BEEP that go into effects," said Timothy Comerford, president of CoreNet Global. "If you bring more jobs to the state than you expected or if you are bringing high paying jobs, there are caps that kick in. With BRRAG (an employee retention program) in order to receive credit you have to move. It's silly."
The coalition also supports creating a "closing fund" to be administered Economic Development Authority but controlled by the governor's office.
"Before the fund is utilized it has to be determined that the money from the fund is a last resort and without it the project would not move forward," said Cushman & Wakefield's Gil Medina, a panelist representing the NJ Chamber of Commerce.
Michael McGuinness, executive director of NJ-NAIOP, noted that the coalition continues to work to raise support for two brownfields initiatives: increasing Hazardous Discharge Remediation Fund grants to 100% of the cost of investigating and cleaning up sites in smart growth areas as well as brownfields, and Sen. Bob Smith's bill (S1897) to license site professionals.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
