As seen in this article, “While the Economic Opportunity Act is poised to be a game-changer for job growth and capital investment, the developers whose projects attract companies to New Jersey say it’s just the beginning.” Another pressing priority is shovel-ready sites.
“Especially in North Jersey, one of the remaining barriers is ‘the lack of shovel-ready, large-scale sites to accommodate future growth,’ said Ted Zangari, a Sills Cummis & Gross attorney who helped craft the incentives overhaul. With property funding, he said, a state agency can take the lead in that realm by acquiring parcels of land, then packaging them for sale to private developers – with the provision that they build and bring in an employer within a specified time. ‘There are few developers out there who have the time, patience or risk tolerance to do land assemblage and clean it up for their own account,’ Zangari said. ‘There’s just nobody willing to do that.’ Such a move would address one of the few remaining recommendations by Zangari’s Smart Growth Coalition, which in 2008 issued an outline for economic recovery and was among the most vocal proponents for incentives reform.”
