Also, on Monday, the Economic Development Authority handed out approvals for three residential and mixed-use projects that were in the pipeline waiting for the EOA to become law:

• $33 million in ten-year tax credits for the $291 million apartment tower planned at Mack-Cali's Harborside Plaza, the site of the symposium
• $38 million in bond funds and tax incentives for the planned $92 million Springfield Avenue Marketplace and apartments in Newark spearheaded by Tucker Development Corp.
• Tax credits to advance plans for a mixed rental/office project in New Brunswick by

  Matrix Development Group

At Wednesday's symposium, Mack-Cali CEO Mitchell E. Hersh said planning for the 69-story residential tower it commited to build two years ago with Ironstate Development simply had to be set aside until the EOA was signed into law Sept. 18. Since Mack-Cali announced that partnership with Ironstate, it has acquired its own home-building division, Roseland. Carl Golberg, Roseland's president, participated in the panel discussion.

Two lawyers who are currently analyzing the potential benefits to developers and tenants of the EO were also on the panel, Philip F. McGovern of Connell Foley and Jay Biggins of Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Co.

Biggins quipped that Lizura's gun-to-a-knife-fight metaphor doesn't quite do justice to the nuanced impact of the bonuses that can be compiled for a project with the EOA, depending on type of property involved, types of jobs created, location near transit or port, location in an economically depressed zone such as Camden, and so on.

“Camden is going to go through a renaissance and don't be surprised to see Mack-Cali as a part of that,” Hersh chimed in. Hersh said it appears to him that New Jersey's new incentive programs may be "tops in the country."

Lizura said the EDA is working on creating a color-coded map to show at a glance the array of bonuses and incentives available. The map will certainly have to be many-colored, though.

A few of the numerous 10% bonuses listed by McGovern in a hand-out he provided at the session include those for projects that include or invole:

* a supermarket or healthy prepared-food seller in a distressed municipality

* health centers in such communities

* disaster recovery

* aviation or tourism destinations

* rehabitation of an existing structure.

Individual companies considering projects or tenancy can work with state development coordinators to get an understanding of what is available, Lizura added.