widely used here. “It wasn’t working in New
Jersey,” Franzini said. “There was too much
bureaucracy.” NJEDA is currently devising
a set of regulations for ERG “to make it a
workable program,” she said.
State Sen. Lesniak added that ERG “has
the potential to get New Jersey out of its
economic slump. We have to be aggressive
in implementing it.” He recalled that a TIF
he supported in the early ’90s led to the
development of the Jersey Gardens mall in
Elizabeth on an abandoned dumpsite. The
project now employs 1,200 and provides
the city and state with “millions in revenue,”
he said.
But while commercial real estate
groups supported the legislation, critics
contend that the bill would be a boon for
developers. “In a time of economic crisis,
with falling tax revenues forcing state and
local governments to make deep cuts to
public services and furlough employees,
New Jersey and its municipalities can ill-afford to funnel needed tax revenue to
private developers,” said Sarah Stecker,
a policy analyst with New Jersey Policy
Perspective, in a statement.
Ted Zangari, a Newark-based
redevelopment law attorney with Sills
Cummis & Gross PC, tells Real Estate
New Jersey that those objections “could
not be more wrong.” He points to a lack
of redevelopment projects in some of
the state’s largest cities, such as Newark,
Elizabeth and Camden, and even in the
Gold Coast metropolises of Jersey City and
Hoboken. A TIF-type program will provide
the extra financing
needed to make
costly, urban-core
projects feasible.
“This is not a case of
developers enjoying
some free state cash”
for development
on greenfields, he
says. “This is about
helping redevelopers
whose numbers don’t
pencil out actually
make a project
financeable.”
Funds to support
the ERG program will
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come only from the incremental addition
tax revenues generated by a project, such
as sales, property and in some cases, payroll
taxes, as well as hotel and livery levies; the
existing taxes paid on a property can’t be
touched. “Those all will be new revenue
streams to fund the grants, which will be
used to fund the debt service on project
costs,” Zangari states. “It’s the farthest thing
from corporate welfare.”
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
MICHAEL ALFIERI
M. Alfieri Co., Inc.
RICHARD
BRUNELLI
R. J. Brunelli & Co
TIMOTH Y R.
COMERFORD
PSE&G
STEVEN
DENHOLTZ
Denholtz
Associates
MICHAEL J.
FASANO
Marcus &
Millichap
WILLIAM C.
HANSON
NAI James E.
Hanson, Inc.
MITCHELL E.
HERSH
Mack-Cali
Realty Corp.
DAVID T.
HOUS TON, JR.
Colliers Houston &
Co.
MATTHE W B.
JARMEL
Jarmel Kizel
Architects &
Engineers
CHARLES
KLATSKIN
Jones Lang LaSalle
CHARLES O. LOGAN
Aztec Architecture
RICHARD D.
MARCHISIO
Lee & Associates
GUALBERTO
MEDINA
Cushman &
Wakefield of NJ
PE TER SCHOFEL
Eastman Cos.
JEFFREY M.
SCHOTZ
FirstService
Williams
JONATHAN B.
SCHULTZ
The Shultz Org./TCN
Worldwide
RAYMOND A.
SOHMER
CB Richard Ellis
SEENA STEIN
Newmark Knight
Frank
EMANUEL S TERN
Hartz Mountain
Industries Inc.
GRETCHEN S.
WILCOX
Q10 | G. S. Wilcox &
Co.
MARK YEAGER
Gale Real Estate
Services
TED ZANGARI
Sills, Cummis Law
Firm
