NEWARK-In an effort to build upon the momentum caused by the recent signing of Panasonic Corp. to a long-term lease at Two Riverfront Center here, Newark’s Brick City Development Corp. will launch a commercial office development strategy to be released this summer. The strategy will focus on drawing office and industrial tenants to six privately owned, shovel-ready sites in the city’s Central Business District. The locations will be announced in the next three weeks, BCDC CEO Lyneir Richardson tells GlobeSt.com.

“Everything we’re doing is about business attraction,” Richardson says. “We want to use Panasonic as the steam powering our engine.” Panasonic, he notes, joins such global companies as Audible.com, Prudential Financial, Blue Cross, Anheuser Busch, Standard Chartered Bank of London, The Federal Reserve and Verizon in locating in Newark. “Our approach is to speak directly to site advisors and corporate leaders,” Richardson says. “Our job is to be a matchmaker between site advisors, brokers and the locals. We try to connect, match-make and even structure the incentives.”

BCDC is finalizing an integrated marketing strategy that will be used to promote the six sites and several other commercial locations, with a goal of signing another large, Panasonic-like deal in the next 18 months. The idea, Richardson says, is to promote Newark’s easy access to New Jersey Transit, PATH, Amtrak, Newark Liberty International Airport and New York City. “We want success for the Urban Transit Hub program,” Richardson says. “It’s one of the advantages of Newark.”