2020 New Jersey Guide_Site Selection

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

New Jersey

THE STATE OF INNOVATION

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9 Business Climate Overview

Building on its legacy of innovation, new ideas gain

momentum quickly in the Garden State.

12 Statistical Profile

A look at New Jersey in facts and figures.

18 Interview with Gov. Murphy

Gov. Murphy outlines how his state pulled off

an unprecedented response to COVID-19

and its rebound.

24 FDI & Trade

Foreign firms find a welcoming, diverse business

climate to grow in the Garden State.

26 Innovation & Entrepreneurship

With a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, New

Jersey offers various programs to help launch startups.

30 Interview: New Jersey Leadership

Jose Lozano shares his organization’s approach

to moving New Jersey forward amid a

global pandemic.

34 Diversity

The fourth-most diverse state in the nation, New

Jersey is a melting pot of ideas and opportunity.

38 Talent

Home to the No. 1 university in the country,

New Jersey’s higher education offerings are

in a world of their own.

4 NEW JERSEY: THE STATE OF INNOVATION

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40 Investment Profile: Kean University

Kean University’s new leader shares his vision

for its future.

42 Infrastructure

Building on its already strong transportation

infrastructure, New Jersey makes critical

investments for its future connectivity.

46 Regional Ecosystems

North, Central and South New Jersey boast unique

economic ecosystems that propel companies

toward success.

60 Life Sciences

With world-class R&D institutions and a wealth

of scientists and engineers, New Jersey has

the Rx for growth in the life sciences.

64 Technology

New Jersey’s legacy of innovation carries on

into the digital age.

66 Advanced Manufacturing

World-renowned higher education institutions bolster

the state’s advanced manufacturing industry.

68 Food & Beverage

The Garden State feeds the nation.

70 Logistics

Ecommerce fuels growth in the state’s robust

logistics and warehousing markets.

74 Clean Energy

Key to the state’s clean energy goals, offshore energy

investment propels New Jersey into the future.

76 Film & Media

As the film industry’s birthplace, New Jersey rolls out

the red carpet for film and television production.

78 Quality of Life

Six reasons to plant roots in the Garden State.

80 Index to Advertisers


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by RON STARNER

The New Jersey business climate can be

summed up in one word: innovation.

While most places on the planet

simply repeat what they offered

last year, the state of New Jersey

seldom stands pat. New Jersey, like its people, is

constantly changing.

From Thomas Edison to Bell Labs, innovation

is written into the code of New Jersey’s

DNA. How do we know that? Consider the

following list:

• Air conditioners

• TV dinners

• Baseball

• Golf tees

• Electric guitars

• Ice cream cones

• Steam locomotive engines

• Submarines

• Radar

• M&M’s

What do all these have in common?

Besides changing the world, they originated in

New Jersey.

Photo: Getty Images


NEW JERSEY: THE STATE OF INNOVATION 9

Most people associate New Jersey’s

reputation for innovation with Edison, and

that is appropriate. After all, the Wizard of

Menlo Park gave us the phonograph, the

motion picture camera, the telegraph and, most

famously, the electric light bulb.

But perhaps his biggest contribution was

that he showed the world that New Jersey

is a place that welcomes people who think

differently, and who come from different

places. The Statue of Liberty stands in the

waters of New Jersey, welcoming immigrants

from every corner of the globe. New Jersey

boasts the third-largest population of foreignborn

residents in the country. Jersey City is

ranked the No. 1 most culturally diverse city

in the U.S., and Newark has been previously

recognized as the No.1 largest city in the U.S.

for integrating people from other nations.

New Jersey does not produce this climate of

innovation by accident. Rather, it is the result

of policies and location attributes that make it

so. For example, the website SafeHome.org

ranks New Jersey as the smartest state in

America; and the state regularly is ranked as

having the No. 1 public school system in the

country. On top of that, Princeton University

annually is rated the No. 1 university in

America by U.S. News & World Report

— a feat it has accomplished a record

10 times in a row.

Other state assets include a central location

that is in the heart of a Northeast Corridor

that accounts for $3.75 trillion in economic

output and has 56.5 million residents; an

airport network that provides direct flights to

340 domestic and 260 international locations;

and real estate that is more affordable than

New Jersey

is in the heart of a

Northeast Corridor

that accounts for

$3.75 trillion

in economic output and has

56.5 million

residents.

Source: Choose New Jersey

Photo: Getty Images

comparable space in New York City or

Silicon Valley.

Fundamentally, New Jersey supports

entrepreneurs. New Jersey is home to more

than 70 collaborative workspaces that

incubate and accelerate innovation. Startups

can apply for free rent support in select

coworking spaces through the New Jersey

Economic Development Authority’s NJ Ignite

program; and the Angel Investor program

offers refundable tax credits for investing in a

qualifying emerging technology business.

Programs like these are a big reason why so

many world-changing companies are based in

New Jersey. From Campbell’s Soup to Nokia

Bell Labs, innovations that create the future

are being developed in New Jersey. Nokia, for

instance, is revolutionizing drone technology,

artificial intelligence and the deployment of 5G

connectivity.

In Ramsey, Konica Minolta partners with

Google Cloud to develop business productivity

tools by using blockchain, facial recognition

and AI. Newark Fiber is delivering up to 10G

of high-speed, low-cost internet service to parts

of the city; and the Newark Land Bank became

the state’s first land bank on April 7, 2020. The

program officially launched in the fall.

Advances like these are a big reason

why New Jersey added 66,000 jobs from

August 2019 to August 2020 even though a

global pandemic had shut down much of the

nation’s economy.

New Jersey ranks fourth in the number of

patents issued, and it is the only state to boast

an inventors’ hall of fame. That is fitting,

as the most famous inventor of all time —

Thomas Edison — was personally responsible

for more than 1,000 U.S. patents, including

everything from the stock ticker to an electrical

vote recorder.

But it is not just everyday devices and

technology that emerge regularly from New

Jersey. So do history-altering ideas. Consider

the words of this famous American: “Fight for

the things that you care about. But do it in a

way that will lead others to join you.”

Those words came from the late U.S.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,

who served as a Rutgers Law School professor

in Newark from 1963 to 1972. Her students at

Rutgers sparked her desire to learn more about

gender discrimination and the law.

And the rest, as they say, is history.



S T A T I S T I C A L P R O F I L E

New Jersey by the Numbers

Top 20 Projects

Companies City Sector Category Type

US Elogistics Service Corp. Mount Olive Transport & Logistics New Distribution Warehouse

Mavi Jeans, Inc. Westwood Textiles New Distribution Warehouse

Modell’s Sporting Goods, Inc. Bordentown Consumer Products New Distribution Warehouse

Deloitte LLP Morristown Business & Financial Services New Headquarters

Axis Global Systems, LLC East Rutherford Transport & Logistics New Distribution Warehouse

PTC Therapeutics, Inc. Bridgewater Life Sciences New Headquarters

HUBER+SUHNER Astrolab, Inc. Warren Township Textiles New Office

Stephen Izzi Trucking and Rigging, Inc. Edison Machinery, Equip. & Const. New Distribution Warehouse

Brother International Corp. Bridgewater Consumer Products Exp. Headquarters

Fisher & Paykel Appliances, Inc. Piscataway Consumer Products New Manufacturing

Eus Imports, LLC Freehold Consumer Products New Distribution Warehouse

AAA Wholesale Distributors, LLC Lodi Consumer Products New Distribution Warehouse

B&J Pets and Aquariums, Inc. Delran Consumer Products New Distribution Warehouse

Mark Anthony Brewing, Inc. Phillipsburg Food & Beverage New Distribution Warehouse

Kres Cold Storage, LLC Vineland Transport & Logistics New Distribution Warehouse

Projects by Sector

8

Consumer

Products

Sector

Projects

Business & Financial Services 11

Transport & Logistics 9

Consumer Products 8

IT & Comm. 6

Food & Beverage 3

Textiles 3

Life Sciences 3

Other 3

Projects by Type

10

Transp. &

Logistics

12

Headquarters

12

Office

27

Bus. & Fin.

Services 47

Dist. Warehouse

Type

Projects

Distribution Warehouse 20

Office 17

Headquarters 8

Manufacturing 7

Research and Development 1

Source Conway Analytics

500

FORTUNE

Fortune 500 Companies

Companies Fortune 500 Rank City County Revenue($ Billions)

Johnson & Johnson* 35 New Brunswick Middlesex $82.1

Prudential Financial* 53 Newark Essex $64.8

Merck* 69 Kenilworth Hunterdon $46.8

PBF Energy* 125 Parsippany Morris $14.5

Becton Dickinson 187 Franklin Lakes Bergen $17.3

Cognizant Technology Solutions 194 Teaneck Bergen $16.8

ADP 227 Roseland Essex $14.2

Bed, Bath & Beyond 265 Union Union $12.0

Public Service Enterprise Group 317 Newark Essex $10.1

Campbell Soup 322 Camden Camden $9.9

NRG Energy 324 Princeton Mercer $9.9

Avis budget Group 345 Parsippany Morris $9.2

Quest Diagnostics 410 Seacaucus Bergen $7.7

burlington Stores 424 Burlington Burlington $7.3

Zoetis 472 Parsippany Morris $6.3

Ascena Retail Group 473 Mahwah Bergen $6.2

Realogy Holdings 490 Madison Morris $5.9

*Also listed as Global 500 Companies

Source: Fortune, May 2020

Economic Overview

$649B

STATE GDP

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Q3 2019

#2

FOR FOREIGN DIRECT

INVESTMENT

Source: The State New Economy Index, 2019

New Jersey is Home to 17

Fortune 500 Companies

3%

OF U.S. GDP

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Q3 2019

225

FOREIGN COMPANIES

BASED HERE

Source: The 2017 State New Economy Index, 2017



Demographics

Public Airports

CITIES WITH DAILY NON-STOP FLIGTHS FROM NEW JERSEY

4,573,600

LABOR FORCE

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, December 2019

8,882,190

POPULATION

Source: U.S. Census, July 2019

100+ North America

35+ Europe

35 South America & Caribbean

14 Middle East & Africa

10 Asia

#1

PUBLIC SCHOOL

SYSTEM

Source: Education Week, Quality Counts, 2020

Educational Attainment

100

80

60

40

20

0

High School Graduate or

Higher

Bachelor’s Degree or Higher

$68,236

PER CAPITA

PERSONAL INCOME

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2019

NJ

U.S.

Graduate or Professional

Degree

Degree NJ U.S.

High School Graduate or Higher 89% 87%

Bachelor’s Degree or Higher 38% 35%

Graduate or Professional Degree 15% 13%

Source: U.S. Census - Educational Attainment, 2018

Key Roads

Ports

78 80 95

#1

LARGEST CARGO PORT

ON THE EAST COAST

PORT OF NEW YORK & NEW JERSEY

Source: NJ Transit

7M+

CONTAINERS

HANDLED IN 2019*

Source: Port Authority of NY & NJ, Jan. 2019

* (20FT EQUIVALENT UNITS)

80

78

287

95

Garden State Parkway

New Jersey Turnpike

Interstate 76

Interstate 95

Interstate 195

Interstate 278

Interstate 280

Interstate 295

Interstate 676

Atlantic City Expressway

#3

BUSIEST PORT

IN THE COUNTRY

Source: NJ Transit

Palisades Interstate Parkway

$205B

WORTH OF CARGO

MOVED THROUGH THE

PORT IN 2019

Source: Port Authority of NY & NJ, Jan. 2019

* (20FT EQUIVALENT UNITS)


Broadband

Largest Municipalities

#1

MOST CONNECTED

STATE IN THE U.S.

Source: Broadbandnow.com, 2019

100%

OF POPULATION

HAS ACCESS TO

WIRELESS SERVICE

99.1%

OF THE POPULATION

HAS ACCESS TO

WIRED BROADBAND

100MBPS OR FASTER


67%

OF THE POPULATION

HAS ACCESS TO

FIBER-OPTIC SERVICE

Municipality

Population

Newark 282,090

Jersey City 265,549

Paterson 145,627

Elizabeth 128,885

Lakewood 104,157

Edison 100,693

Woodbridge 100,450

Tom’s River 93,717

Hamilton 87,552

Clifton 85,273

Trenton

Paterson

Newark Jersey City

Elizabeth

Edison Woodbridge

Hamilton

Lakewood

Tom’s River





I N T E R V I E W W I T H T H E G O V E R N O R

On the Road

to Recovery

Gov. Murphy leads New Jersey to strong

rebound following pandemic, recession.

by RON STARNER

The New Jersey

state capitol building

in Trenton.

Photo: Getty Images

When a good portion of your state

is in the most important financial

center in the world, it does not

take long for the effects of a global pandemicinduced

recession to manifest themselves.

That was certainly the case in New Jersey, but

that’s also where leadership stepped up.

Gov. Phil Murphy quickly mobilized all

available resources in New Jersey to form a

comprehensive response to both the public

health crisis and the economic fallout. What

ensued was truly remarkable, and now the

state is firmly on the road to recovery.

In the following interview, Gov. Murphy

outlines how his state pulled off this

unprecedented response and rebound.

Obviously, responding to the global

COVID-19 pandemic has been job one

for every governor this year. How has

your state responded, and what have

been the impacts of that response?

GOVERNOR MURPHY: New Jersey was

one of the earliest states to experience the

full force of this pandemic and we responded

quickly and decisively to try to limit

interactions that would spread the virus. We

had early success in containing the virus that

lasted through most of the summer; however,

we are now back in the throes of it and,

like many states, recording high numbers of

positive COVID-19 cases. Once again, we

are responding by trying to limit interactions

in places where the virus can most easily

spread. We also have mandated masks in some

settings and encouraged their use at all times

when social distancing isn’t possible. At the

outset of the pandemic, I held daily briefings

to keep residents and businesses aware of our

actions to control the spread. We continue

to hold briefings three times per week. In

an effort to aid New Jersey businesses that

have been hit hard, we have made available

millions in relief funding through grants

and low interest loans and have instituted

several programs to advise concerned business

owners on ways to mitigate the worst effects

of the pandemic. We also have responded to

the need for personal protective equipment

by developing a partnership with large

suppliers that can be accessed at a discount

by our state’s businesses. Our programs

are designed to keep our businesses afloat

and safely operating as we work to contain

this virus. At the same time, we have taken

executive action to protect our workforce,

creating common sense standards for worker

health and safety during the pandemic and

standing up an enforcement regime and

training opportunities to assist employers with

compliance.


We worked hard to produce a state budget

that does not make draconian cuts. Since

the start of the pandemic we have operated

under the notion that we cannot cut our

way out of the economic crisis in which we

find ourselves. Importantly, we have worked

to ensure that communities experiencing

disproportionate levels of harm due to the

pandemic, including communities of color

and low-income communities, are foremost

in our efforts, and that we emerge from

this pandemic a stronger, fairer and more

resilient state.

What industries were hit the hardest in

your state?

GOVERNOR MURPHY: More than

755,000 New Jerseyans lost jobs during the

initial shutdown to combat the COVID-19

pandemic. As of September, the state had

recovered approximately 56% of those

lost jobs. In terms of industry sectors, the

hardest hit were: Leisure and Hospitality

(restaurants, hotels, casinos, etc.), Retail

Trade, and Healthcare and Social Assistance

(Dr’s. offices, dentist’s offices, outpatient care

centers, physical therapists, etc.).

What does the New Jersey roadmap for

economic recovery look like?

GOVERNOR MURPHY: New Jersey is

committed to achieving a sustainable,

equitable recovery that not only restores the

economy back to pre-COVID-19 vibrancy, but

also advances us toward our goal of building a

stronger, fairer, and more resilient New Jersey.

To achieve this goal, we are complementing

our broadly available COVID-19 relief

“New Jersey is currently in the

process of revising our tax

incentive offerings to better align

State programs with our goal of

building a stronger economy that

works for all of New Jersey.

”

— Phil Murphy, Governor of New Jersey

programs with targeted efforts focused

on communities and businesses that have

historically faced barriers to success during

the best of times: small businesses, minorityand

woman-owned companies, and businesses

in under-resourced communities. We are also

prioritizing businesses in industries that have

been hit particularly hard by the pandemic,

such as restaurants, personal care businesses,

and performance venues. These efforts

will help to ensure a robust and equitable

economic recovery.

To date, the bulk of New Jersey’s

COVID-19 economic relief efforts have

focused on providing direct cash assistance

to individuals and businesses that have lost

jobs or faced falling revenues as a result of

the pandemic. Between grants, loans, rent

relief, and other efforts, the State has provided

crucial resources to tens of thousands of New

Jersey residents. This helped to stabilize our

economy during the most challenging stages

of the pandemic and provided as strong a

foundation as possible for ongoing, long-term

economic recovery efforts.

Looking ahead, New Jersey’s COVID-19

response will begin to shift toward helping

businesses and individuals adjust to living,

working, and doing business safely. We have

already launched programs to help small

business owners purchase reliable, highquality

personal protective equipment at

an affordable price and technical assistance

programs to help businesses that rely on

in-person interactions implement the

changes they need to keep their employees

and customers safe. Going forward, we will

continue to build on these efforts to ensure all

businesses and New Jersey residents have the

information, tools, and resources they need

to work and live safely. This includes a robust

and expanding suite of workforce development

resources to help displaced workers get the

training and support they need to find new

opportunities post-COVID.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented

an unprecedented public health and economic

tragedy for New Jersey and the nation.

However, we believe that by providing

timely, accessible resources for residents and

supporting workers and business owners

as they reopen safely, we can achieve a

sustainable, equitable recovery that gets New

Jersey back on track and positions us for longterm

economic success.

How long do you think it will take

for the New Jersey economy to fully

recover?

GOVERNOR MURPHY: The COVID-19

pandemic is an unprecedented global crisis. As

such, it is impossible, and even irresponsible,

to attempt to provide timelines for recovery.

Still, we are confident New Jersey will make

a complete recovery. In fact, the recovery

process has already begun.

New Jersey’s economic foundations are

sound. We are located at the heart of the

Northeast Corridor close to multiple global

economic hubs. We have the best public

education system in the nation and are home

to multiple leading research universities,

which has helped produce one of the most

highly educated and skilled workforces in the

United States. We have a strong innovation

ecosystem, and are welcoming cuttingedge,

high-growth industries from offshore

wind to esports. These fundamentals will

remain important, and may even take on

new significance, as we emerge from the

COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to these fundamental strengths,

we are taking proactive steps to ensure a safe

and speedy recovery. New Jersey had one of

the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the spring

but was able to rapidly contain and control the

virus through a proactive, coordinated public

health response. We now have a much better

understanding of how to prevent the spread

of the virus and the State is taking steps to

support business reopening and residents

returning to work, including creating a

jobs portal to connect workers to available

jobs, providing grants to help businesses

purchase personal protective equipment, and

making direct financial support available for

businesses that have been hit the hardest by

the pandemic.

Together, these efforts have helped New

Jersey’s economy remain stable throughout the

crisis and have put us on track to a safe and

efficient recovery that results in strong and

equitable long-term growth.

How have you modified your incentive

programs in recent years to adjust to

the times and changing landscape of

corporate site selection?

GOVERNOR MURPHY: New Jersey is

currently in the process of revising our tax

incentive offerings to better align State

programs with our goal of building a stronger

economy that works for all of New Jersey.

The proposed new incentive programs include

a number of important reforms including

an increased focus on targeted industries,

prioritizing new job creation rather than

retained jobs, lower per-job credit amounts

with bonuses that more closely align with

the State’s economic goals, encouraging job

creation and investment in urban centers

and other distressed communities, placing

limits on the transfer of credits to ensure

job-creating companies reap the primary

benefits of taxpayers’ investments, rewarding

companies that invest in employee skill

development and training, and incentivizing

investment in revitalizing the historic

buildings that are the heart of New Jersey’s

vibrant communities. Our proposed

Innovation Evergreen Fund is a bold new idea

that will connect New Jersey startups with

the funding they need to grow and foster a

vibrant innovation ecosystem while generating

new revenues for the State. These changes

will ensure a robust incentive program that

addresses businesses’ needs while ensuring

New Jersey residents share in the benefits of

economic growth and development. We are

working towards getting a deal in place by the

end of 2020.

There is obviously a lot of competition

for companies between New York and

New Jersey. How are you addressing

that situation now?

GOVERNOR MURPHY: New Jersey views

New York and all our neighbor states as

partners in our work to build a stronger,

fairer economy that better serves businesses

and residents. While every business’s

20 NEW JERSEY: THE STATE OF INNOVATION NEW JERSEY: THE STATE OF INNOVATION 21

decision-making process is unique, New

Jersey provides a variety of benefits for

businesses and workers that make it an

attractive destination for companies looking

to launch, relocate, or expand.

At the most basic level, New Jersey’s

location at the heart of the Northeast

Corridor provides unparalleled proximity

and connectivity to one of the world’s largest

economic hubs. New Jersey complements this

advantage with unparalleled infrastructure

for businesses, including a robust network of

highways, ports, and airports as well leading

high-speed internet connectivity across

the state.

New Jersey is also home to the top-ranked

public education system in the nation as well

as numerous leading colleges and research

universities. This has not only helped New

Jersey develop one of the most diverse and

highly-educated workforces in the United

States, it also helps companies that locate

in New Jersey attract top talent who want

to ensure their children have access to good

schools and communities that reflect a diverse

and interconnected world.

All these factors have contributed to New

Jersey’s thriving economy, which includes

leaders in the fastest-growing industries of

tomorrow, from offshore wind to esports.

New Jersey is proud to host a robust and

growing innovation economy, and the State

is committed to supporting new ideas. One

recent example of this leadership is the NJ

Wind Port, which will establish New Jersey as

a hub of the rapidly expanding global offshore

wind industry.

Together these many advantages make

New Jersey a highly attractive destination for

businesses of all sizes across all industries. As

we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic,

these strong economic foundations will ensure

a rapid and robust recovery, which will make

the Garden State even more attractive to

companies considering a move or expansion.

Mass transit ridership has gone way

down since the advent of the pandemic.

Do you foresee New Jersey making any

significant changes to its mass transit

programs in the future?

GOVERNOR MURPHY: During my first

week in office I signed an executive order

directing an audit of NJ Transit to begin to

understand where the opportunities were

to transform the agency. Since that time,

we have taken big steps to turnaround the

agency, including the release of the agency’s

first ever 10-Year Strategic Plan and Five-

Year Capital Plan. Of course, like many

agencies during this period, they’ve been

hit hard. During the entire COVID-19

pandemic, trains and buses were in operation

to transport frontline workers. NJ Transit

has taken extraordinary steps to mitigate

the spread of COVID-19. Over the last nine

months, NJ Transit has lost 13 of their own

to COVID-19.

All of this is important to share, because

despite the human and operational impacts of

the pandemic, there remains a workforce of

nearly 12,000 who rise every day to keep New

Jersey moving. Ridership declined sharply

since March and thankfully, federal resources

have provided a critical, though temporary,

funding bridge to offset losses and allowed us

to meet the pandemic head on. Commuters

still need to get to work, or get home, or

see their families and for too many New

Jerseyans mass transit is the only way to get

there. In the immediate future, I do not see

significant changes coming for NJ Transit. As

we meet the challenges of COVID-19 — and

if everyone does their part — we will regain

our collective health and have NJ Transit as

a critical service throughout and after we’ve

beaten back this virus.

What is the main message that

you would like to communicate to

corporate executives, and their talented

employees, these days about New

Jersey?

GOVERNOR MURPHY: I would tell them

New Jersey has your back and adults are in

charge. New Jersey has a tremendous amount

to offer as a business location including the

most educated and talented workforce in the

nation and an unparalleled location.

Home to the United States’ secondbusiest

shipping port, bookended by four

international airports, next door to the

world’s greatest capital market in New

York City, and serviced by all means of

transportation infrastructure – our location is

second-to-none.

We also are home to the top-ranked public

education system in the entire United States.

We attract students from all over the world to

study at some of the world’s best institutions

of higher education, more than 60 colleges

and universities in all, a list headed by

globally renowned Princeton University and

Rutgers University.

And then, of course, we have our people.

Strong, smart, creative, and diverse people.

New Jersey is home to one of the nation’s most

highly skilled and best-educated workforces.

And, notably, we are home to the highest

concentration of doctorate and technical

professionals anywhere in the world.

In addition, we have a long-established

leadership as the home of innovation. We

were the home of Thomas Edison, the

inventor of the light bulb, motion pictures,

and much more. We are the home of the

historic Bell Labs, where nine Nobel

laureates, three Turing Prize winners, and

thousands of researchers invented or perfected

many innovations that powered our modern

world, including the transistor. And, we have

been the historic home to many of the world’s

leading pharmaceutical and life-sciences

companies, giving us the nickname of the

“medicine chest to the world.”

Innovation runs deep throughout our

state’s DNA.

And last but by no means least, we have

our quality of life. New Jersey is a fantastic

place to raise a family. There are few places

that can lay claim to all that New Jersey has

to offer. Just look at the fierce loyalty our

state inspires among its residents and you’ll

be convinced.


F O R E I G N D I R E C T I N V E S T M E N T


Where

International

Companies

Need to Be

Getty Images

by MARK AREND

Perhaps the reason New Jersey has so

many top-notch ethnic restaurants is

because more than 1,100 international

employers from around the globe have

operations in the state. They employ nearly

285,000 workers, 35% of whom are in

manufacturing. Not all of them are from outside

the U.S., of course. But many are, and they find

in New Jersey not just an abundance of cuisine

options, but several even more compelling

reasons to have business operations there.

According to the Global Business Alliance,

New Jersey has the highest concentration of

foreign direct investment (FDI) jobs as a share

of private-sector employment in the U.S., at

8.1% in a tie with South Carolina. In the past

five years, the state’s FDI employment has

grown 25% relative to overall private-sector

growth of 8%. New Jersey is home to more than

225,000 scientists and engineers, and it awards

the second highest percentage of STEM degrees

in the Northeast. It has more than 60 colleges

and universities and consistently performs

strongly on education measures used in national

business climate rankings. It’s in the heart of

the Boston-New

York-Washington

corridor and

its more than

56 million

residents. The

Port of New

Yok/New

Jersey is the

largest on the

East Coast, and

Newark Liberty

International Airport

has nonstop flights to

more than 130 international

cities. That’s a huge advantage to

company personnel coming to visit

their New Jersey operations.

WHERE FOREIGN INVESTMENT

COMES FROM

Companies based in France, the United

Kingdom and Canada are the largest investors

in New Jersey according to the Global Business

Alliance, but some other markets are making

significant inroads. At an event on April 29 in

Trenton marking Israel’s 72nd Independence

Day, the New Jersey — Israel Commission

noted that trade between New Jersey and Israel

notably increased from 2018 to 2019, alongside

steady investments from Israel.

Trends in trade data released at the time

point to higher exports from New Jersey to

Israel and larger amounts of foreign direct

investment from Israel moving into New Jersey.

Data from the census for Trade and fDI

Markets shows several positive developments

from 2018 to 2019:

• New Jersey moved from third to second

place as a recipient of Israeli greenfield FDI

in the Northeast and received the fourth

largest amount of inward FDI from Israel

between 2015-2019 amongst all U.S. states.

• Israel moved up from 13th to 12th place

between 2015 and 2019 as an international

source of greenfield FDI in New Jersey.

• Israel jumped two positions from 31st to

29th as the largest international trading

partner of New Jersey.

• New Jersey remains the fifth largest

importer from Israel amongst the

U.S. states.

• Of all the U.S. states, Israel received the

fourth largest amount of FDI from New

Jersey between 2015 and 2019.

“Choose New Jersey was proud to lead

a business attraction mission to Israel in

February which created opportunities for

economic growth both in New Jersey and

Israel,” noted Jose Lozano, President & CEO

of Choose New Jersey. “The new data reflects

what we already know — Israel is increasing

investment in our State with our shared focus

being on innovation-driven industries.”

NEW JERSEY’S CHIEF SALESMAN

Meanwhile, Governor Phil Murphy is

actively drumming up FDI on business

recruitment trips to Europe and elsewhere.

One market where he is seeing particular

success is India, where in September 2019 the

governor announced in Mumbai that three

Indian companies plan to expand in New

Jersey, adding more than 1,200 jobs. Mumbaibased

information technology firm Tata

Consultancy Services will expand its workforce

by approximately 700 jobs, bringing its New

Jersey workforce to roughly 4,700 employees.

Larsen & Toubro will add approximately 400

jobs, boosting its Edison workforce to about

1,000 workers. Birlasoft, part of the New

Delhi-based conglomerate CK Birla Group,

will add an additional 160 jobs. The governor

also used to occasion to open a permanent

office in India to facilitate investment in

New Jersey.

In 2016, India-based Lupin Pharmaceuticals

acquired Somerset-based GAVIS

Pharmaceuticals and Novel Laboratories

resulting in Lupin Somerset, its first generic

drug contract manufacturing operation in the

U.S. GAVIS employed more than 250 in New

Jersey at the time of the acquisition. Lupin

Pharmaceuticals announced a $42.6 million

expansion of its Somerset, NJ facilities while

meeting with Governor Murphy and the New

Jersey delegation in India.

Today, the facility handles functional areas

of pharmaceutical manufacturing, including

quality control, packaging, production,

quality assurance, regulatory affairs, research

and development, formulation and technical

services. The Somerset campus is also home to

Lupin’s U.S. sales and marketing operations

teams for the Specialty division.


I N N O V A T I O N & E N T R E P R E N E U R S H I P

Where

Innovation

Happens

New Jersey’s entrepreneurs are in good company

among the state’s many collaborative workspaces.

by SAVANNAH KING

Photo: Getty Images

New Jersey understands a thing or two

about innovation. As the birthplace

of world-changing technologies like

the air conditioner and the light bulb, New

Jersey’s legacy as a hub of innovation and

entrepreneurship continues to this day.

To help encourage the next generations

of the world’s best ideas, the New Jersey

Economic Development Authority (NJEDA)

offers various programs to support startups

as they grow. With a full range of programs

and services, NJEDA can provide businesses

with low-interest financing through matching

loan programs, tax incentives, real estate and

networking opportunities with key players

and investors around the state and region.

One of its key programs, The Edison

Innovation Fund, helps develop, sustain,

and grow technology and life sciences firms

to create well-paying jobs in the state.

Other programs for startups include the NJ

CoVest Fund, which provides seed funding

to companies and NJ Founders & Funders,

which facilitates networking between emerging

companies tech and life science companies and

angel and institutional investors.

LAUNCHPAD

For many new entrepreneurs, participating

in an accelerator program can make all the

difference. Accelerator programs provide key

access to mentors, investors and educational

programs. To encourage startups to join the

state’s many accelerator programs, NJEDA’s

NJ Accelerate program provides the graduates

of approved accelerator programs with

opportunities for direct funding up to $250,000

and rent support.

Another key program, NJ Ignite, helps

startup companies by providing up to nine

months of rent support for startup technology

and life sciences businesses moving to an

approved collaborative workspace. NJ Ignite

is made possible through a combination of

support from the NJEDA and the collaborative

workspace, with the NJEDA covering up to six

months’ rent and the workspace covering rent

for three months.

Some of the first companies to benefit from

the NJ Ignite program include medical device

manufacturer Carbon22 and health-tech

startup Big Magic, Inc. In 2019, Carbon22

moved into a creative flex office space at

Building 78, a creative flex office space and a

coworking facility known as Kearny Point.

Big Magic set up shop at VentureLink, a

high-tech accelerator/incubator at the New

Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.

“Thanks to the money we’re saving on

rent with NJ Ignite, we’ll be able to hire

additional engineers to build out our product

line,” said Carbon22 Founder and CEO

Vadim Gurevich. “Additionally, our space

in Kearny Point is perfect for our current

needs, but also affords us the necessary

space to grow.”

WALKING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF GIANTS

The historic former Bell Labs building in

Holmdel has been reimagined into a unique

“metroburb” with retail, restaurants, business

and more. Originally constructed between

1962 and 1964, the building is known for its

role in spurring the development of some of

the world’s greatest inventions and research

concepts. As the research headquarters

for Bell Laboratories, Lucent and Alcatel-

Lucent, the building has a rich history of

innovation. Over its 40-year history as a lab,

seven Nobel Prize winners have worked inside

the building, including those who conceived

theories for the laser, the Big Bang theory,

cellular technology, the transistor and more.

Today, Bell Works continues to provide a

place for the world’s next best inventions

to come to life. The CoLab at Bell Works

Metroburb offers startups a unique work

environment to grow and scale their business.

Bell Works is just one of many unique

collaborative and innovative workspaces

available across the state. To learn more about

the state’s approved collaborative facilities and

its programs, visit https://www.njeda.com.

NJ IGNITE

Approved Collaborative Facilities

• 1776

• Business Energy

• Co-Co Collaborative LLC

• CoLab (BellWorks)

• CoWerks

• Cowork Street

• EcoComplex

• En Masse Coworking

• Equal Space

• Incutate

• Kearny Point

• Mission 50

• NJ Bioscience Center – Incubator

• Office Evolution

• Primework

• Princeton Innovation Center BioLabs

• Rutgers Food Innovation Center

• South Jersey Tech Park

• The (Co) Working Space of North

Brunswick

• VentureLink



I N T E R V I E W W I T H C H O O S E N J L E A D E R S H I P

The Shift to

New Jersey Is On

More companies are finding a haven of safety in New Jersey.

“California, New York and

Massachusetts are often regarded

as life sciences hot spots, but the

truth is that New Jersey has been

a global life sciences leader for

over a century.

”

— Jose Lozano, President & CEO, Choose New Jersey

by RON STARNER

Jose Lozano, President and CEO of Choose New Jersey, has had a

hectic year, to say the least. When COVID-19 hit, every single aspect of

the way New Jersey goes about economic development had to change,

as government agencies at every level had to pivot and focus more on

business survival than on business attraction and recruitment.

Keeping businesses afloat and keeping employees on the job became

job one for everyone, from the Governor on down — and that is exactly

what Choose New Jersey did. In the following interview, Lozano

outlines the approach that his state took toward responding to the global

pandemic and what means moving forward for New Jersey.

What were the three most impactful economic development

projects that your state secured in 2020?

LOZANO: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted all our lives in 2020,

but we are still seeing signs of positive economic activity. In the last

year, we have seen dozens of companies relocate to New Jersey, creating

thousands of new, good-paying jobs. Three economic development

projects we have seen in New Jersey over the last year include:

• Hudson Holdings Group is an advanced manufacturing company

specializing in the efficient, low-cost, sustainable production of masks

and other PPE equipment. The Choose New Jersey team assisted

the company in the site selection process and they ultimately decided

on a facility in Piscataway. The company expects to hire about 200

employees to produce 60 million non-medical grade face masks per

month. This onshoring of PPE production is crucial considering how

the pandemic disrupted the global supply chain.

• SIRO Clinpharm Private Limited is a Clinical Research

Organization (CRO) supporting trials from Phase II to Phase

IV and beyond post-launch of products. SIRO offers a range of

services, from clinical operations to data services, data analytics and

medical writing. Choose New Jersey met with company executives

during Gov. Phil Murphy’s business attraction mission to India in

2019. With Choose New Jersey’s assistance over the last year, the


company opened an office in Princeton in

February 2020.

• We are also excited about a confidential

electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer that has

committed to locating in New Jersey and is

seeking to create 200 jobs.

What are your agency’s top three

priorities for 2021?

LOZANO: In 2021, the state and nation begin

to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic,

which has severely impacted our health and

economic well-being. As New Jersey’s leading

nonprofit economic development organization,

Choose New Jersey will continue focusing on

marketing the State of New Jersey as a state of

innovation that is a great place to do business:

• One of our primary marketing outreach

efforts will continue to be focused on the

countries and regions where Choose New

Jersey has recently led business mission trips

and opened offices — particularly India

and Europe. We remain optimistic about

potential new business opportunities with

these key regions, especially once travel

restrictions loosen.

• We are also assisting businesses in New

York City that are looking to relocate due to

the COVID-19 pandemic and are looking

for more spread-out, suburban locations.

As more businesses consider leaving urban

centers to relocate to suburban office

parks, Choose New Jersey is showcasing

everything New Jersey real estate has to

offer as we enter a new COVID-19 world.

• In addition, Choose New Jersey is

committed to business development and

increasing potential opportunities in

2021 as we rebuild our economy from this

unprecedented pandemic.

How was corporate expansion project

activity in New Jersey impacted by the

global COVID-19 pandemic?

LOZANO: There is no doubt that the

COVID-19 crisis has had a profound impact

on our health and economic well-being as a

state and nation. While numerous projects

were halted in 2020 due to this unprecedented

pandemic, we have seen an increase in activity

since June. So far in the last year, we have seen

dozens of companies relocate to New Jersey,

resulting in thousands of new, good-paying

jobs. We have also seen a shift toward U.S.

companies making new biopharmaceutical

and new cell and gene manufacturing facilities

because of COVID-19. Choose New Jersey is

seeing success from our India business partners

in the tech sector, and we expect to see further

growth in this sector once travel restrictions are

lifted. Another area of improvement has been

from life science companies in Europe.

When did you begin to see prospect

activity pick up again?


LOZANO: We started to see prospect activity

pick back up again in June, and we expect to see

continued growth as we look toward 2021.

Obviously, a lot of corporate and

commercial office space is vacant right

now. What are you hearing from New

Jersey-based companies about their

plans for their office space moving

forward in this new world of remote

work?

LOZANO: Office consolidation is the

biggest trend we are seeing from New

Jersey businesses in this new COVID-19

environment. Many companies with multiple

offices are ending their leases early and

consolidating to one or fewer offices. Another

trend we are seeing is a shift away from

urban centers to the suburbs of New Jersey

to accommodate their workforce that lives in

New Jersey, making their commutes shorter

and safer.

What are your main target

industry sectors?

LOZANO: Our key industry targets align

with sectors that have been a reliable

resource in the past for New Jersey. These key

industries include life sciences, technology,

manufacturing, food and beverage, financial

services, logistics, clean energy, and film and

media. These industries have a strong and

growing presence in our state and continue to

drive success for New Jersey’s economy. We

are seeing growth in Europe in the online

gaming sector as well as in the offshore wind

industry, which will help advance New Jersey’s

goal of having 100% clean energy by 2050.

We will also increase our outreach in the

U.S., Europe and India in an effort to grow

New Jersey’s film and media industry.

perfectly located with unmatched access to

key consumer markets and major U.S. cities.

More than 40% of the U.S. population and

thousands of businesses are located within a

day’s drive of our state. In addition, we are

globally connected with access to world-class

infrastructure. Newark Liberty International

Airport and other nearby airports offer daily

non-stop flights to over 340 nonstop domestic

and 260 nonstop international destinations.

The state’s unrivaled road and rail network

includes over 2,800 miles of interstates and

highways and the nation’s highest railroad

density. New Jersey is home to the Port of

New York and New Jersey, the East Coast’s

largest seaport, making it easy to move

products across the country or around

the world.

What is your global brand identity as

a state?

LOZANO: New Jersey is the state of

innovation. New Jersey has always been a

place of invention — from Thomas Edison’s

light bulb to the first CAR-T cell therapy

developed by Novartis. Our state has

cultivated a dynamic innovation ecosystem

that supports cutting-edge companies and

visionary entrepreneurs. Our strategic East

Coast location, concentration of top talent,

and enhanced quality of life makes New

Jersey the best place in the U.S. to live, work,

play — and do business. In partnership with

the New Jersey Economic Development

Authority (NJEDA), Choose New Jersey

will continue to make sure current and

prospective businesses have the resources they

need to succeed here. Our organization offers

complimentary relocation and expansion

services, site visits to assist in property search,

and economic development connections to

ensure a smooth transition to our state.

top companies for R&D productivity. Last

year, life science companies with a New Jersey

presence represented an impressive 50% of all

new FDA drug and therapy approvals.

Innovation is in New Jersey’s DNA. Our

State boasts a thriving tech ecosystem with

industry giants like Audible, Panasonic,

Verizon and Samsung. We have the top talent,

top universities in the country and are close

to major U.S. cities including New York

City and Philadelphia. New Jersey also has

access to venture capital funding and is home

to a leading fiber-optic network — all with

a cheaper price tag than New York City or

Silicon Valley.

What do you think are your state’s three

most effective incentive programs?

LOZANO: The NJEDA offers a number

of incentive programs that help increase

investment in our state:

• Angel Investor tax credits for qualifying

emerging technology companies can

provide them up to 20% of their qualified

investment and an additional 5% bonus

for investments in businesses located

in opportunity zones, low-income

communities, or a business that is certified

as minority or women-owned by the state.

• The Technology Business Tax Certificate

Transfer (NOL) Program enables qualified

unprofitable New Jersey technology or

biotechnology companies to sell their net

operating losses and R&D tax credits for

at least 80% of their value to unrelated

unprofitable corporations. This allows these

companies to turn their net operating losses

into working capital or funds for research,

driving innovation and maintaining healthy

businesses.

• The NJ Ignite program provides free

rent support for entrepreneurs seeking to

operate in collaborative work spaces, while

providing work spaces with a competitive

advantage and greater value proposition to

offer prospective tenants.

More incentives and incubator programs the

State of New Jersey has to offer can be found at

www.njeda.com.

What are New Jersey’s strongest selling

points as a business destination?

LOZANO: There is no better place than

New Jersey for business relocation or

expansion. New Jersey offers companies one

of the most highly skilled, highly educated,

diverse workforces in the country. We are

home to the top colleges and universities

around the country — as well as the highest

concentration of scientists and engineers in

the nation — which is attractive to businesses

looking to recruit top talent. New Jersey is

Are there any lingering misperceptions

about New Jersey that you would like

to address?

LOZANO: California, New York and

Massachusetts are often regarded as life

sciences hot spots, but the truth is that New

Jersey has been a global life sciences leader

for over a century. New Jersey has a highly

specialized workforce to support this industry.

Thirteen of the top 20 pharmaceutical

companies in the world call New Jersey home.

New Jersey is also home to 12 of the world’s


D I V E R S I T Y

DIVERSE POPULATION,

DIVERSE

PORTFOLIO

As of 2018, nearly 23% of the New

Jersey population was born in a

foreign nation. That’s No. 2 in

the nation, just behind California

and just ahead of neighboring New York.

WalletHub found the state to be the fourth

most diverse state in the nation, and home to

the No. 1 most diverse city in the nation: Jersey

City, where 41% of residents were born abroad.

by ADAM BRUNS

continues to pioneer integration practices that

benefit the economy as well as the community.

On National Citizenship Day, in September

2020, Jersey City recorded another first,

becoming the first municipality in the nation

accredited for offering free legal services to

immigrants as part of the U.S. Department of

Justice Recognition and Accreditation Program.

The honor came two years after Mayor Steven

WalletHub ranked New Jersey

No. 4 most diverse state in the nation.

Ellis Island, which

sits in New Jersey

waters, saw 12

million immigrants

pass through its

now quiet halls

from 1892 to 1954.

Photo courtesy of

National Park Service, 2005

Known as America’s “Golden Door,” Jersey

City’s city hall sits a mere 2.4 miles from the

Statue of Liberty. Nearby Ellis Island — which

welcomed 12 million immigrants from 1892 to

1954 — is located in New Jersey waters. There

are 75 different languages spoken by students in

the city’s school system. Its diversity mandate

extends to racial inclusion and harmony as

well. And Jersey City (along with Newark)

Michael Fulop and the City Council created

the Division of Immigrant Affairs. “Our free

immigration legal services program will focus on

naturalization, which is a strong social indicator

of health,” said Stacey Flanagan, director

of health and human services for the city.

“Naturalized citizens earn eight to 11% more

than non-naturalized immigrants. They have

more stable jobs and fare better during crises.”


India is New Jersey’s fourth largest trading partner. The world’s largest Akshardham,

a Bochasanvasi Akshar Purushottam Sansthan temple (BAPS), was inaugurated in

Robbinsville in 2014. Photos courtesy of Bochasanvasi Akshar Purushottam Sansthan (BAPS)

New Jersey

Knows Diversity

• New Jersey is home to 225 foreign

company headquarters.

• One-third of all New Jersey business

owners are foreign-born.

• New Jersey is home to the highest

percentage of jobs generated by

immigrant-owned business and the

highest percent of foreign-born STEM

workers.

• The state’s K-12 schools rank No. 1

in the U.S. for enrollment in foreign

language classes.

• New Jersey is the second state, after

California, to require public schools

to adopt an LGBTQ- and disabilityinclusive

history curriculum.

• Rutgers University — In 2018 Newark

was ranked the No. 1 most diverse U.S.

university by Best Value Colleges.

• The New Jersey EDA has expanded

the Angel Investor Tax Credit program

to include diversity incentives. The Film

and Digital Media Tax Credit also

includes a 2% diversity bonus.

SOUTH ASIAN CONNECTIONS

You don’t have to go far to find reflections of

ethnic and racial diversity in the state’s business

portfolio. Right there in Jersey City sits an

area of heavy Indian population called “Little

Gujarat.” And Choose New Jersey points out

that Oak Tree Road in Edison and Iselin, also

known as “Little India,” is the largest Indian

business hub in the U.S.

India is the state’s fourth largest trading

partner for imports and exports, and the No. 1

state for jobs created by Indian companies —

totaling over 9,000.

New Jersey also ranks No. 1 in the

northeastern U.S. for share of Indian parent

companies that construct new operational

facilities (i.e. greenfield FDI). New Jersey also

ranks #2 for total Indian FDI and ties with

Texas for the highest concentration of Indian

companies in the U.S. Of the top 14 Indian

pharmaceutical companies by revenue for 2018,

10 have corporate offices in New Jersey, including

Sun Pharma, Mankind and Lupin. Sun Pharma

has facilities in Cranbury and Brunswick.

Mumbai-based Lupin opened a 100,000-sq.-ft.

expansion in Somerset in 2017, the same year

that fellow Indian company Aurobindo opened

a new 567,000-sq.-ft. distribution center in East

Windsor for its solid dosage, injectables and

over-the-counter products.

The state’s relationship with India’s

vaunted BPO sector is strong too, including

investments from giants Wipro and Infosys.

And it stretches into the state’s workforce

development infrastructure.

In September 2019 in New Delhi, the

National Association of Software and

Services Companies (NASSCOM), which

represents India’s largest BPO employers,

signed a Memorandum of Understanding

with VentureLink@NJIT and Choose New

Jersey to facilitate partnerships that will

promote tech-based FDI in both directions

and support collaborative R&D. Among other

aspects, the MoU established the ‘NASSCOM

Launchpad,’ a 90-day complimentary softlanding

space to use as a home base in New

Jersey for promoting business opportunities for

NASSCOM member companies.

Even amid the pandemic, the Launchpad

held a virtual launch in July 2020, with Batoi

Systems Pvt. Ltd., Eminenture Pvt. Ltd.,

Mucheo, NeenOpal Inc. and ITSYS Solutions

establishing a foothold. Around 20 companies

will utilize the platform over the next year.

“This is yet another milestone program

for NASSCOM that will act as a prominent

catalyst for the global expansion of Indian

IT companies,” said Shivendra Singh, Vice

President, NASSCOM.

“VentureLInk@NJIT provides a unique

opportunity for member companies of

NASSCOM to be part of New Jersey›s largest

startup incubator and co-working space. These

companies gain access to expert guidance and

mentoring, unique networking opportunities

and the vast resources of a top polytechnic

university,» said Simon Nynens, CEO of the

New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), which

oversees VentureLink@NJIT. “And we in

turn, are introduced to some of India’s leading

software and services companies.”

“Choose New Jersey is excited to mark the

virtual launch of NASSCOM Launchpad

in partnership with VentureLink@NJIT,”

said Jose Lozano, president & CEO, Choose

New Jersey. “This collaboration will continue

to strengthen New Jersey’s relationship

with India and further cultivate the innovation

economy. We look forward to working together

to support a pipeline of businesses that will

call New Jersey home.”

Just like so many immigrants have for

generations.


T A L E N T

Princeton University is perennially

ranked tops in the nation.

Photo: Getty Images

BRIGHTEST

OF THE BRIGHT

For talent, New Jersey occupies a universe of its own.

In the firmament of American

higher education, Princeton

University stands out as the

brightest star. In September

2020, the Ivy League stalwart

was ranked by U.S. News & World

Report as the top university in the

nation. Not for the first time, either,

but a startling tenth year in a row.

Chartered before the American

Revolution, Princeton counts

among its graduates 12 Supreme

Court Justices, two presidents and

numerous foreign heads of state.

The private university has been

associated with no fewer than 69

Nobel laureates, including novelist

Toni Morrison and economists

Paul Krugman and Angus Deaton.

Former first lady Michelle Obama

graduated Princeton in 1985 before

going on to Harvard Law School.

When it comes to education,

New Jersey’s bragging rights merely

begin at Princeton. U.S. News ranks

by GARY DAUGHTERS

the state No. 2 on its list of the

country’s best-educated states. Most

tellingly, New Jersey holds Top Five

spots in each of the magazine’s five

metrics for K-12 learning, which

include college readiness, high school

graduation rate, math scores, reading

scores and pre-school enrollment.

Likewise, Education Week has

ranked New Jersey top in the nation

for K-12 education for the past

two years.

Such achievements do not occur

in a vacuum. According to the U.S.

Census Bureau, New Jersey spends

$18,920 per student per year, the third

highest in the country. In the 2021-

2022 school year, New Jersey will

become the first state in the nation

to require climate change among its

public school education standards,

which also include social studies,

science, visual and performing

arts, health and physical education,

world languages, computer science

and design thinking, and career

readiness, life literacies and key skills.

A newly-unveiled initiative in

Jersey City is further emblematic of

New Jersey’s innovative approach

to K-12 learning. In conjunction

with the Hudson County Board

of Education, Jersey City plans to

establish Liberty Science High

School on the grounds of SciTech

Scity, an emerging innovation

campus. The magnet school is to

offer science, technology, engineering

and math (STEM) education to 400

students across the county, as well as

access to businesses at the campus,

including internship opportunities.

“We are revolutionizing what

public education can accomplish,

and this partnership with the county

is a significant step towards our

vision of creating an ecosystem of

innovation to educate and inspire

future entrepreneurs and scientists,”

says Mayor Steven Fulop.

AN ALL-STAR LINEUP

More than 535,000 students are

enrolled in New Jersey’s 63 public and

private colleges and universities. Forty

percent of the state’s workforce holds

a bachelor’s degree or higher, while

16% have an advanced graduate or

professional degree. The state boasts

the highest concentration of scientists

and engineers per square mile in

the country.

Like Princeton, Rutgers University,

with campuses in Newark, New

Brunswick and Camden, was founded

before the Revolution, making it

one of the nation’s nine “colonial

colleges.” Classified as Research

Intensive University by the Carnegie

Foundation, Rutgers offers more

than 100 undergraduate and masters

programs and more than 80 doctoral

programs. In 2020, U.S. News ranked

Rutgers No. 3 on a newly-added list

of Top Performers on Social Mobility,

signifying colleges and universities

that graduate the most students

receiving federal Pell Grants.

Stevens Institute of Technology

in Hoboken offers a specialized

Quantitative Finance Program.

Participants receive instruction in

disciplines such as pension funds

management, financial markets

modeling and control of operational

risks for manufacturing and consumer

products companies. The first

university in the nation to develop

a Ph.D. in Financial Engineering,

Stevens was selected in 2020 by the

National Science Foundation to lead

the nation’s first-ever industry-based

cooperative research center devoted to

financial technology and science.

New Jersey Institute of Technology

(NJIT), the state’s leading polytechnic

university, focuses on preparing

students for the increasingly techdominated

economy. With an

enrollment of more than 11,000

undergraduate and graduate students,

NJIT is considered a global leader

in such forward-leaning fields as

solar research, nanotechnology,

resilient design, tissue engineering

and cybersecurity. The school offers a

unique blend of liberal and technical

education, with 50 undergraduate

degrees and 68 graduate programs.

Ramapo College, founded in

1969 in Mahwah, has ranked among

Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine’s

100 Best Values in Public Colleges

for 14 years in a row. Undergraduates

at Ramapo can choose from about

40 programs in five schools, and

graduate students can earn degrees

in nursing, business, liberal studies,

sustainable studies and education.

Ramapo has launched the construction

of a new Learning Commons, which

will add 18,000 sq. ft. of space to

the existing 62,000 sq. ft. George T.

Potter Library. The John Templeton

Foundation has named the college to

its Honor Roll for Character-building

Colleges.

LIFE-LONG LEARNING

New Jersey’s 18 community colleges

serve more than 300,000 students

each year in credit, non-credit and

workforce development courses. Nearly

100,000 of those students are enrolled

in non-credit training programs linked

to the system’s business partners,

which number in the thousands.

The state’s Consortium

for Workforce and Economic

Graduation Day at Ramapo College

Photo courtey of Ramapo College

Development provides coordinated,

one-stop statewide education and

training services for businesses and

industries through the community

colleges, which offer access to

over 1,700 programs taught by

faculty with business experience.

Workforce training resources

available to businesses also include

competitive employee training grants,

apprenticeship training and on-thejob

training.

In 2019, New Jersey piloted

the state’s first tuition-free college

program, known as the New Jersey

Community College Opportunity

Grant (CCOG). New Jersey

students enrolled in any of the state’s

community colleges are eligible if

they have no prior college degree and

household adjusted gross income of

less than $65,000.

“Everyone deserves an opportunity

to pursue his or her dreams — whether

you are a recent high school graduate

or an older student changing your

career,” said Gov. Phil Murphy,

as he launched the program. “Our

community colleges play a critical

role in helping our students build

the skillsets they need to meet the

demands of a growing and diverse

21st-century economy. CCOG grants

provide a pathway to success for

both our students and our state as

a whole.”



I N V E S T M E N T P R O F I L E

KEAN UNIVERSITY

R&D’s New Home Base

With a new leader at the helm, Kean University is poised

to become the state’s next great research institution.

New Jersey’s first

public post-secondary

institution, Kean

University (pronounced

“cane”), is a growing

educational hub for business, health

care and technology. Serving more

than 16,000 undergraduate and

graduate students at four campuses in

New Jersey and abroad, the university

has earned a reputation for graduating

some of the state’s top talent.

Amid a global pandemic in May,

Kean University’s board of trustees

selected its newest leader following a

comprehensive nationwide search. The

board chose a leader they were already

familiar with — Kean University

alumnus Lamont O. Repollet, Ed.D.

— for his extensive background in

education. Before becoming the

university’s president, Repollet served

as the Commissioner of Education

under Governor Phil Murphy. As

commissioner, Repollet expanded early

childhood education, strengthened

STEM opportunities for students and


by SAVANNAH KING

promoted a positive school culture

that embraces social and emotional

learning.

We spoke with the university’s

new leader about his plans for the

institution and what the university

brings to the state’s business climate.

When you took on the president’s

role earlier this year, how did you

approach the university’s unique

challenges with the COVID-19

pandemic?

Lamont O. Repollet: When I

became president of Kean University,

I announced three pillars on which

I would focus this academic year —

safety, equity and academic excellence.

Safety is truly my top priority as we

tackle the unprecedented challenges

posed by COVID-19. Collaboration and

innovation are key to bringing all of us

through this pandemic.

The President’s Task Force, which

included members from across our

campus community, worked together

to create a comprehensive plan for

launching remote and hybrid courses

and bringing resident students back

to campus safely in Fall 2020. A

partnership with the County of Union,

in which the county operates a drivethrough

COVID testing site on campus,

has become key to our efforts to protect

our community as all students, faculty

and staff have access to free testing on

campus. It’s also a great example of the

kind of partnerships with businesses and

government entities that are a priority

at Kean. Our students are participating

in internships and conducting research

across a range of disciplines as a result

of the testing partnership. They are

developing invaluable real-world skills

that will serve their future employers

well.

Over the years, Kean University

has evolved from a teaching

college into a major state

Photos courtesy of Kean University

university. Where do you want to

take Kean in the future?

Repollet: I have said this clearly from

day one — Kean University will become

the next world-class research institution

in the State of New Jersey. We are

pursuing the R2 Carnegie classification

to take the university from great to

elite. Kean is already on its way. Our

annual Research Days event, in which

students from across all disciplines

present their research, has grown tenfold

since it launched. Faculty and students

are excited about conducting research.

We are seeing more of our students win

national research competitions against

students from some of the most elite

universities in the country.

Kean has many programs to

encourage and support research,

including our Research First Initiative

at the New Jersey Center for Science,

Technology and Mathematics and our

Freshman Research Initiative that runs

campuswide. Both programs bring

freshmen into research early in their

academic careers. The university’s

Office of Research and Sponsored

Programs is charged with growing

research enterprise throughout the

university with an emphasis on facultystudent

research and securing external

funding.

With new facilities like Hynes Hall,

the home of the College of Business

and Public Management, and the new

Hennings Research wing of our science

building, Kean students have access to

state-of-the-art technology to spur their

curiosity and support their educational

and research goals. We’re also focused

on recruiting diverse faculty to teach

and conduct research through the

new Equity in Action Presidential

Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.

A significant number of Kean

University students are the first

in their families to go to college.

How would you describe the

university’s role in promoting

social mobility?

Repollet: U.S. News & World Report

has ranked Kean as a top-performing

school for social mobility for two years

running and recognized Kean among

the most ethnically diverse universities

in the northern United States. This

recognition is a tremendous source of

pride for us.

Equity is more than a buzzword

for me. It drives all that I do. As a

first-generation college student myself,

I know personally the importance

of education in opening doors of

opportunity for all students. Equity

will always be a part of who we are

as a university.

Lamont O. Repollet, Ed.D.

I have created an Office of Diversity,

Equity and Inclusion to take the lead

in ensuring all students are welcomed

and supported at Kean. We have many

different academic support programs

that start before students even come to

campus. Our Supplemental Instruction

program encourages all students to take

challenging math and science courses by

having embedded academic support in

the class. I like to say that Kean receives

students where they are and takes them

where they want to go.

What sets Kean University apart

from other higher education

institutions in the region?

Repollet: Kean’s diversity is one

of its great strengths. Our students

come from every different background

you can think of, and at Kean, they

collaborate, learn and socialize together.

Our diversity gives them an education

outside the classroom and makes them

ready to thrive in the global job market.

In addition to that, our students

benefit from outstanding academic

programs — many of them recognized

among the best in the state and nation

— taught by faculty who are experts

in their fields and go the extra mile to

provide students with the support and

one-on-one mentorship they need to

excel.

How does Kean University

support entrepreneurship and

innovation in Northern New

Jersey?

Repollet: Right on Kean’s campus, we

are working to support entrepreneurship

and innovation through the Institute for

Life Science Entrepreneurship (ILSE).

Located in our STEM Building, ILSE

is a nonprofit life science technology

accelerator, business incubator and

research institute. It’s been recognized

as a top life science-tech accelerator and

works with partners as varied as the

CARB-X Global Accelerator Network

in its fight against drug-resistant

antibiotics to the Township of Union

as it seeks to expand its outreach to life

science entrepreneurs.

Many of Kean’s students intern with

ILSE, creating a mutually beneficial

relationship between the university

and the science entrepreneurs. We are

always looking for new opportunities to

work with corporations and nonprofits

to support scientific and technological

discoveries and expand the resources

available to our students.

This Investment Profile was prepared under the auspices of Kean University.

For more information, contact the Office of the President at (908) 737-7000.


I N F R A S T R U C T U R E

The Port Authority of New York and New

Jersey’s network of aviation, ground, rail,

and seaport facilities supports more than

550,000 REGIONAL JOBS,

and generates more than $23 billion in annual

wages and $80 billion in annual economic activity.

Perpetual Motion

Part of the $30 billion

gateway initiative to

spruce up the five

airports operated by the

Port Authority of New

York and New Jersey is

a $2.7 billion investment

at Newark Liberty

International to build a

new Terminal One.

Image courtesy of Port Authority

of New York and New Jersey

An overview of New Jersey’s connective tissue for commerce.

As Memorial Day arrived in

May 2020, the International

Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike

Association (IBTTA), held a

briefing to call attention to the precipitous drop

in toll revenues (from 50% to 90%) across the

country because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But other things were on the rise, even as staff

worked from home and

toll collections were

suspended.

“Serving our commercial trucking

community rose to a new level of importance,”

said Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, commissioner

of the State of New Jersey Department

of Transportation. “We stocked supplies

of hand sanitizer and made certain food,

fuel and restrooms were always open.”

At the same time, construction programs

proceeded as scheduled. “Some projects have

been accelerated,” she said, “to minimize

construction-related traffic once the economy

returns.” Not to mention maximize the

construction productivity that can accompany

extremely low traffic counts.

But truck traffic was another thing


altogether. I asked her how the DOT was

working with truckers.

“We’ve stayed in close contact with the

New Jersey Motor Truck Association, who

are phenomenal partners,” she said. “A lot of

things happen at the federal level, with an

increase in allowed vehicle weight and longer

hours. It’s been beneficial to them to be able

to move more product

by ADAM BRUNS

with fewer folks. We’ve

seen no drop-off in

commercial traffic. It’s stayed pretty strong.”

The tremendous surge in e-commerce

was the primary reason. But you can’t

accommodate a surge without having the

infrastructure in place.

“The ports were deepened, which allows

these Panamax carto ships in,” says Jeff Hale,

director of leasing at general contractor and

developer The Sudler Companies. “And I

think post-Sandy there were quite a few

improvements to the turnpike and port access,

ahead of this demand crush.”

The $1.3 billion raising of the Bayonne

Bridge a few years ago to accommodate those

ships helped too. Now a total of 75% of all

container carrier services make the Port of NY/

NJ their first port of call on the East Coast.

From January to April 2019, the Port of New

York and New Jersey handled 20,774 more

loaded containers, known as 20-foot equivalent

units or TEUs, than during the same period

the previous year, earning recognition as the

nation’s second busiest port.

Making sure infrastructure is ready for

calamity, prosperity or both at once is the job

of any jurisdiction. In addition to highways,

here’s an update on New Jersey’s other modes

of movement and assets for conducting business

at an optimum level:

PORTS

The deep-water ports of Newark, Elizabeth

and Bayonne in New Jersey continue to get the

job done. In the third quarter of 2020, the Port

of New York and New Jersey moved a total

of 2,016,797 TEUs, an increase of 2.5% from

the same period in 2019. September alone saw

movement of 720,969 TEUs, a 15.4% increase

from September 2019

“During the third quarter, the seaport

recovered to 2019 levels and surpassed its alltime

September record as factories and retailers

around the world ramped up activity in

preparation for the holiday season and growing

concerns of future supply chain disruptions,”

said the Port Authority. “Also, more global

shippers are opting to call on the seaport as

their first stops in the U.S. due to the seaport’s

improved freight rail facilities and ability to

serve ultra-large container ships such as the

15,072-TEU vessel CMA CGM Brazil, which

arrived in September as the largest container

ship to call at the port.”

AIRPORTS

Part of the $30 billion gateway initiative

to spruce up the five airports operated by the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

is a $2.7 billion investment at Newark Liberty

International to build a new Terminal One.

Replacing an outmoded Terminal A, opened

in 1973, the project will have approximately 1

million sq. ft. of space that will accommodate

33 common-use gates and 13.6 million

passengers on three levels, and the terminal

will be operated and maintained by Munich

Airport International. Now expected to open

in late 2021, Terminal One is the state’s largest

design-build project, expected to generate more

than $4.6 billion in regional economic activity,

create more than 23,000 job years and provide

more than $1.9 billion in wages.

But there is a lot more to New Jersey

aviation. Two of the five airports under the

aegis of the Port Authority of New York and

New Jersey sit on the New Jersey side: Newark

and Teterboro Airport, a general aviation

reliever airport located just 12 miles from

midtown Manhattan. The official map of the

New Jersey Division of Aeronautics features

117 total airports (43 of them public), plus eight

balloonports. Among projects underway at

these mostly general aviation airports is a $2.8

million expansion of Ocean County Airport

at Robert J. Miller Airpark in Berkeley and a

terminal expansion at Trenton-Mercer Airport

in the state capital region community of Ewing

Township (home to a healthy share of corporate

employer growth), where Frontier flies more

than 16 routes to such cities as Sarasota and

Orlando, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; and

Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.

In normal times, New Jersey airports

generate more than 60,000 commercial service

jobs with $4.6 billion in payroll; more than

12,800 general aviation jobs with $890 million

in payroll; over $15.5 billion in total commercial

service output; and over $2.8 billion in total

general aviation input.

RAIL

New Jersey has approximately 1,000 miles of

rail freight lines from both two Class I and 16


FTZ

FTZ No. 44

FTZ No. 49

FTZ No. 142

FTZ No. 200

FTZ No. 235

short line regional railroads. Norfolk Southern

and CSX are the Class I carriers in the state.

Altogether, the state’s 18 freight railroads move

over 50 million tons of freight from, to or

through the state and displace nearly 3 million

heavy truckloads annually.

Though no longer considered a Class

I railroad, Conrail — which served the

northeastern U.S. as the primary Class I from

1976 to 1999 — maintains nearly 470 miles of

track in the state and serves many industrial

freight movers’ terminal and switching needs

as a service provider to both CSX and Norfolk

Southern. As recently as 2016, Conrail served

225 companies in 16 counties within New

Jersey, and delivered 300,000 carloads annually

to customers within the state.

LOCATION

Morris County

Port of Newark/Elizabeth Marine Terminate

Salem County

Mercer County/Airport in Trenton

Ocean County

Some of the most significant rail investment

occurs where the land meets the sea. The

fourth ExpressRail facility, a $149 million

project, at Port Jersey-Port Authority Marine

Terminal, completed in 2019, complements the

approximately $600 million the Port Authority

of New York and New Jersey has invested to

build and grow its ExpressRail system since

1991 to support efficient rail movements to and

from its major container terminal facilities.

The new facility, coupled with the completion

of the raising of the Bayonne Bridge to

accommodate ultra large container vessels

and over $4 billion in other modernization

initiatives over the past two decades, has led to

unprecedented cargo growth. “Between 2009

and 2018,” said the Port Authority in 2019, “the

number of containers handled at the Port of

New York and New Jersey grew from more

than 2.6 million to almost 4.1 million each

year, an increase of 54%.”

“The port has been the lifeblood of the

New York-New Jersey regional economy for

decades, and completion of this intermodal

rail project will only help to bolster our already

strong position in attracting international cargo

destined for the northeast region and beyond,”

said Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole.

FOREIGN TRADE ZONES

New Jersey’s Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs)

help companies keep costs in check by

deferring the duty on goods until they leave

the Zone. New Jersey has five FTZs, including

Port Newark/Elizabeth Marine Terminal’s

FTZ No. 49. Spanning nearly 4,500 acres, it

is one of the largest contiguous foreign trade

zones in the U.S.

In the most recent report to Congress of

the Foreign-Trade Zones Board of the United

States, New Jersey was the No. 15 state in the

nation for merchandise receives in FTZs, and

No. 16 in exports. By zone, FTZ No. 49 was

No. 16 in the country for merchandise received

and No. 9 in exports. Among the companies

taking advantage of production operations in

New Jersey FTZs are Givaudan Fragrances,

L’Oreal USA and AFGA Corp.

BROADBAND

As the e-commerce trend demonstrates,

some of the most powerful commerce moves

by fiber. BroadbandNow, which calls itself the

Kayak for internet service, says New Jersey

ranks No. 1 in the nation for broadband access.

“Due to its combination of broad coverage,

high speeds and low pricing, New Jersey is the

most well-connected state in the U.S.,” says

the company. “Over 99% of New Jerseyans

have access to a wired connection with speeds

of 100 Mbps or faster, and 67% of the state’s

population has access to fiber-optic internet

services, which is well over double the national

average of 25% of Americans with access

to fiber.”

The best connected cities? Paterson is No. 1

in the state and No. 2 in the nation, followed

by Basking Ridge, Bayonne, Ridgewood and

Asbury Park.

Klixge Ratphout,

Miscelaph, Icn


R E G I O N P R O F I L E – N O R T H N E W J E R S E Y

Newark:

A RISING

TECH CAPITAL

Photo: Getty Images

Cross River Bank Grows at Home

Cross River Bank, a New Jersey

financial institution known for its

innovative use of new technology,

is expanding in New Jersey with

support from the New Jersey Economic

Development Authority (NJEDA). The

bank has acquired a 70,000-sq.-ft. facility

in Fort Lee, which will be home to 200

employees from the bank’s current Fort

Lee headquarters, along with an additional

250 new employees it plans to hire.

“Innovative fintech companies like

Cross River choose to locate in New

Jersey because of our unrivaled pool of

diverse, tech-savvy talent, and the unique

advantages of our location,” said Governor

Phil Murphy. “We are thrilled that Cross

River is committed to growing in the

Garden State and creating the kind of job

opportunities that align with our vision

for a stronger and fairer New Jersey

economy, with a focus on high-growth,

high-tech industries that promote financial

inclusion.”

In December 2019, Cross River was

approved by the NJEDA for Grow New

Jersey tax credits to encourage the

company to expand in Fort Lee over a

competing location in Orangeburg, New

York. The bank will initially occupy 36,447

square feet of its new facility and will take

on additional space as it grows.

“The State’s support will enable us to

expand within New Jersey instead of

leaving the state we have always called

home,” said Gilles Gade, president and

CEO of Cross River. “Governor Murphy’s

focus on supporting companies that

look to the future and take advantage of

innovative new solutions is exactly what

New Jersey needs right now. We are

proud to call New Jersey home and look

forward to hiring hard-working Garden

State residents as we continue to grow.”

New Jersey’s largest city is home

base for many global companies,

including PSEG, Prudential

Financial, Audible, Horizon Blue

Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey,

and Panasonic Corporation of North America.

Only a 20-minute train ride from New York

City, Newark offers key access to markets with

urban amenities at a much more affordable

price point. Newark Liberty International

Airport offers global access to approximately

185 destinations. Additionally, Port Newark is

the second busiest seaport in North America

and the largest maritime cargo center on the

East Coast. An estimated $200 billion in goods

move through the port annually.

Newark’s well-connected infrastructure

includes broadband. With 26 miles of

underground municipal fiber delivering

10-gigabits-per-second speeds at prices far

below those of other cities, news travels fast.

The outdoor Wi-Fi network is one of the

largest and fastest in the country, delivering

400 megabits per second. Additionally,

the city has committed to further tech

infrastructure investment as it transforms into

one of America’s smartest cities.

In 2018, Newark officially launched its

by SAVANNAH KING

LinkNWK (pronounced “Link Newark”) Wi-

Fi enable kiosks to deliver super-fast, secure

Wi-Fi and other services at no cost to taxpayers

or users. Located in key places around the city,

each kiosk offers free mobile device charging,

phone calls to anywhere in the U.S., access to

municipal services, maps and directions, and

community content produced in conjunction

with local partners. With LinkNWK, Newark

joins New York City, Philadelphia, London

and cities around the U.K. in bringing these

digital upgrades to city streets.

“We are the only city in the entire state

and the second in the nation to provide these

services, and every person who uses one of

these kiosks will not only gain the services they

need but learn something more important:

Newark is a world-class urban leader,” said

Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka.

LinkNWK is the result of a collaboration

between The City of Newark, The Newark

Community Economic Development

Corporation (NCEDC), the New Jersey

Institute of Technology (NJIT) and

Intersection, a leading smart cities technology

and media company, to enable city residents

to benefit from Newark Fiber — a program

designed to bring affordable gigabit internet

to the city. LinkNWK, Newark Fiber, the

city’s renowned research universities, techsavvy

workforce, and proximity to New

York City, are all making Newark a robust

technology center.

“We’re excited to continue to build upon

Newark’s reputation as a tech hub. With major

anchors and corporations like NJIT, Audible,

Panasonic and Newark Venture Partners, as

well as robust data infrastructure, we continue

to bring Newark and its

residents to the forefront

of innovation,” said Aisha

Glover, President and

CEO of Newark CEDC.

“We are equally excited

that LinkNWK is another

feather in our tech cap.”

Quickly gaining

a reputation as an

ideal location for tech

entrepreneurs and startups,

Newark’s robust innovation

ecosystem includes the

New Jersey Institute of

Technology (NJIT) and

Rutgers University –

Newark. NJIT, located in

the city’s lively University Heights District, is

one of only 32 polytechnic universities in

the United States. The Princeton Review

Only a 20-minute

train ride from

New York City,

Newark offers

key access to

markets with

urban amenities

at a much more

affordable

price point.

listed NJIT as one of the best schools for

aspiring entrepreneurs. NJIT ranked No. 41

among the Top 50 Undergraduate Schools for

Entrepreneurship Studies for 2020. NJIT is

one of only three R1 research universities in

New Jersey.

BRICK CITY’S JEWEL BOX

In 2019, Onyx Equities unveiled

redevelopment plans to overhaul the landmark

Gateway office complex in

Newark. The company’s

investment in the complex

will help establish the city as

a walkable destination and

include approximately 10,000

square feet of street-facing

retail space for the first time.

Gateway’s concourse and

bobbies and 5,000 square

feet of converted retail space

will also be reconfigured

to be consistent with the

expectations of its tenants

with spaces of varying sizes to

relax or enjoy food and drink

from local and international

dining options.

“As Newark’s front door across from Penn

Station, Gateway sets a tone for interacting

with the City, says Matt Flath, Vice President



HIGHER EDUCATION SPOTLIGHT:

Local Colleges & Universities

In addition to the region’s diverse workforce, a

steady stream of talent pours into the pipeline from

local colleges and universities.

New Jersey City University’s School of Business

is located directly in the heart of the city’s financial

district. The campus opened in 2015 in a 68,348-sq.-

ft. space at Harborside Plaza 2 directly on the

waterfront. The location provides students with

convenient access to corporate employers on both

sides of the Hudson River. Across its three campuses,

NJCU serves nearly 8,000 students annually, offering

47 undergraduate degree programs and 30 graduate

programs in a wide range of fields, including emerging

technologies and interdisciplinary fields.

Montclair State University is one of the state’s

leading public research universities. Across three

campuses in Montclair, Little Falls and Clifton, the

university serves more than 21,000 undergraduate

Asset Management for Onyx Equities.

“Gateway’s new “Jewel Box” entrance is the

hallmark of a renovation plan that expresses a

new vision for activating the street level with

10,000 square feet of new restaurants and retail

as well as a stunning update of the concourse

walkway network that provides indoor access

and graduate students annually.

In June, The Montclair Innovation Lab officially

opened in a downtown storefront. A timely

collaborative effort between the University’s

Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation

and community partners like the Montclair Center

Business Improvement District (BID), the Innovation

Lab aims to breathe life into the local economy while

creating opportunities for students and community

entrepreneurs. The Lab, which is a two-year pilot

project, will include a mix of 3D printing operations

and business pop-ups, scaling the learnings of the

Feliciano Center’s MIX Lab. This on-campus facility

has fostered student/community innovation around

3D printing since it was founded in 2015. The new

Montclair Innovation Lab will expand that effort

to provide more help to the Montclair business

community and increase opportunities for students.

to Gateway’s four buildings and the rest of the

downtown. As the leading collection of office

buildings in New Jersey’s largest city, Gateway

is the center of a community featuring world

class education, entertainment and sports

venues whose potential to elevate Newark into a

world-class City is only now being realized.”

City Profile:

JERSEY CITY

Boasting views of neighboring New

York City’s skyline, Jersey City offers

all the convenience and opportunity

of the world’s financial capital,

without the hefty price tag. Office space is

40-60% cheaper in New Jersey than in other

nearby markets and has some of the best digital

infrastructure in the U.S.

The city’s waterfront financial district is

home to major financial firms like Jackson

Hewitt, Pershing, Lord Abbett, Farm Credit

System. National companies with operations

in the city include BNY Mellon, HSBC North

America Holdings, Royal Bank of Canada,

Citi, Goldman Sachs and many more. Financial

giant JP Morgan first opened in Jersey City

back in 1834. Today, the company employs more

than 4,000 at its Jersey City Corporate Center,

where it supports nearly every

one of the global company’s

business lines.

For companies like JP

Morgan and IPC Systems,

Inc. (which operates its

global headquarters in Jersey

City), Jersey City’s diverse

population ensures they’re

able to hire the best employees

from all walks of life.

Ranked by WalletHub as the No. 1 most

culturally diverse city in the U.S., Jersey City

has held the distinction as the country’s most

diverse city in 2017 and 2018. In 2019, the city

ranked second on the list. The city also ranked

first in linguistic diversity and second in

ethnoracial diversity.

Kayaking on the

Hudson River

Credit Hoboken Cove

Boat House


R E G I O N A L E C O S Y S T E M S – C E N T R A L N E W J E R S E Y

New Brunswick:

Life Science &

The Heldrich Hotel &

Conference Center.

Photo courtesy of New Brunswick

Development Corporation

Logistics Spur

INNOVATION

In the city’s earlier years, New Brunswick

was a hub of entrepreneurial and industrial

activity. Today, the city’s legacy continues

with world-changing and life-saving

innovations and technologies.

Located in Central New Jersey, New

Brunswick offers easy access to 107 million

people — or 1/3 of the U.S. population within

a day’s drive. Whether by rail, road, sea or

air, New Jersey is well-positioned to quickly

and affordably move goods to markets around

the world.

Indeed, its central location led Johnson &

Johnson to establish its base of operations in

the city more than 130 years ago. On a cold day

in January 1886, James Wood Johnson, one of

the company’s founders, took a west-bound

train from New York to Philadelphia. Along

the way, the train stopped at a tiny station

by SAVANNAH KING

midway through the journey, and Johnson

knew he’d found the perfect location for the

business he was opening with his brothers.

Since its start, it has grown into a multinational

corporation focusing on consumer products,

pharmaceutical therapies and medical devices.

Johnson & Johnson is far from the only life

science firm to call the region home. Bristol-

Myers Squibb first opened its New Brunswick

facility in 1905. Today the 105-acre site is

used for research and development. Novo

Nordisk operates its U.S. headquarters and in

neighboring Plainsboro, New Jersey.

Chris Paladino, president of the New

Brunswick Development Corporation, explains

innovative companies like these are attracted

to the region by its robust and well-educated

talent pool.

“CEOs make decisions for the most part

CASE STUDY:

Peloton Expands in Carteret

Not far from Peloton Interactive’s downtown

New York City headquarters, the national

interactive fitness platform has expanded into

a 156,000-sq.-ft. industrial facility in the borough of

Carteret, New Jersey. The new facility will be used as

a warehouse, distribution and fulfillment center.

Peloton is well-known in the health and wellness

circuit for its cutting-edge indoor workout bikes and

other fitness-related equipment.

“Carteret is happy to welcome Peloton to our

thriving industrial district,” said Carteret Mayor Daniel

J. Reiman. “This immensely successful company

joins some of the biggest names in the country, like

Amazon, Dr Pepper/Snapple, FedEx, NuWorld, and

Performance Team in calling Carteret home, thanks

to the Borough’s prime location and businessfriendly

policies.”

The facility that Peloton is leasing was constructed

in 2017 as part of redevelopment with Hampshire

Companies and features 17 loading docks, 36-foot

ceilings, ESFR sprinklers and a secured truck court

with parking and trailer storage.

“Peloton Interactive needed a state-of-the-art

warehouse and distribution facility with convenient

access to the New Jersey Turnpike that was also in

close proximity to New York City and near a robust

labor pool,” said CBRE Senior vice president Scott

Belfer. “1500 Blair Road fit our client’s requirements

perfectly, and its location was a key factor in its

decision to commit to a long-term lease for the

entire complex.”

HIGHER EDUCATION SPOTLIGHT:

Princeton University

Once again, Princeton University has been

named the No. 1 university in the country by

U.S. News & World Report for the 10th year

in a row.

A world-renowned research university, the

university graduates some of the best and brightest

minds worldwide. Indeed, the university counts 42

Nobel Prize winners among its faculty, staff and

alumni.

Home to numerous life science-related centers

and institutes, including the Princeton Neuroscience

Institute; the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative

Genomics; the Merck Catalysis Center; the Bristol-

Myers Squibb Center for Molecular Synthesis; and

the Small Molecule Screening Center, Princeton’s

reputation for making groundbreaking life science

discoveries is known the world over.

To support entrepreneurship and innovation,

the university offers several resources, including

Princeton Innovation Center BioLabs. Its

Entrepreneurial Hub supports startups to quickly and

efficiently bring ideas and products to market. The

member-based coworking spaces offer shared office

and lab space with strategic access to capital and

industry partners.



New Brunswick Performing Arts Center

Photo courtesy of New Brunswick

Development Corporation

based on talent,” he said. “Central

New Jersey has an extraordinary

talent pool and continues to turn

out — between Princeton and

Rutgers Universities — new talent

every spring, particularly in the

areas of engineering, computer

science and life sciences. New

Jersey has the largest percentage

of P.H.Ds and engineers in the

country, and a lot of that is focused

in Middlesex Country. We’re an

extraordinarily diverse population

and a very educated population.”

FROM THE GROUND UP

The region’s spirit of

collaboration and entrepreneurship

is evident in several new

construction projects.

In May, RWJBarnabas Health

and Rutgers Cancer Institute of

New Jersey, in partnership with

New Brunswick Development

Corporation, announced the

development of a new, state-ofthe-art,

free-standing cancer

pavilion. The $750 million facility

will house key outpatient services,

including those for chemotherapy

and radiation therapy, as well as

the major diagnostic modalities

and inpatient cancer services. The

facility will also feature research

laboratories.

Two blocks away from the new

cancer pavilion, the New Jersey

Technology and Innovation Hub

is being constructed. Called The

Hub @ New Brunswick Station,

the four-acre redevelopment

site offers 1.7 million sq. ft. of

mixed-use space for innovative

companies, including biotech, life

sciences and technology.

Incidentally, explained

Paladino, The Hub’s location has

long been a meeting place for the

area’s brightest minds. “This part

of New Jersey has always been

a hub of innovation,” he said.

“The place where we’re building

the New Jersey Technology

and Innovation Hub is where

Thomas Edison used to have

lunch with the Johnson Brothers.

They met there for lunch in a

pharmacy to talk about American

manufacturing.”

A perpetual hotbed of

innovation, the Hub’s convenient

location offers direct access

to Rutgers University-New

Brunswick, allowing its tenant

companies to access the best of the

region’s talented workforce easily.

Rutgers University was

established in 1766 and is the

eighth oldest institution of higher

leading in the country. One

of the nation’s premier public

research universities, its New

CASE STUDY:

Genmab

In July, biotech firm Genmab officially

opened its new U.S. headquarters office

and research and development laboratories

in Princeton University’s Forrestal Center in

Plainsboro. Genmab’s new 90,070-sq.-ft.

location is located on a 125-acre campus that

once housed Bristol-Myers Squibb and has

been renovated into state-of-the-art offices

and translational research laboratories.

The global firm specializes in creating and

developing antibody therapeutics used to treat

cancer. Founded in 1999, the Danish company

also has facilities in Utrecht, the Netherlands

and Tokyo. Since first locating in the state two

Brunswick campus is the only

public institution in the state to

be represented in the prestigious

Association of American

Universities. Rutgers’ School of

Engineering is developing cuttingedge

techniques in continuous

manufacturing for pharmaceuticals,

in partnership with Janssen and

other sector leaders. Additionally,

Rutgers Discovery Informatics

Institute recently installed one

of the nation’s most powerful

supercomputers, Caliburn,

which will be available for use by

industry.

years ago, Genmab has expanded its employee

base from 36 employees to more than 165

employees with plans to hire more in the

future.

“Our location in New Jersey’s ever-dynamic

and innovative life-sciences ecosystem

allows us to leverage the local high-skilled

labor market where we can continue our

growth trajectory in a setting that supports

our ambitions to nurture Genmab’s corporate

culture in a new and vibrant workplace

environment that aligns with our company

vision,” said Chris Cozic, Genmab’s global vice

president of human resources.


R E G I O N A L E C O S Y S T E M S – S O U T H N E W J E R S E Y

Atlantic City:

Winds of Change

CASE STUDY:

NJ Wind Port in Salem County

In June, Governor Phil Murphy announced a $300-400 million plan to develop

the New Jersey Wind Port, a first-in-the-nation infrastructure investment that will

provide a location for essential staging, assembly, and manufacturing activities

related to offshore wind projects on the East Coast.

The New Jersey Wind Port will be located in Lower Alloways Creek Township, on an

artificial island on the Delaware River’s eastern shores, southwest of the City of Salem.

After a 22-month assessment process, the site was selected, including engagement

with industry, government and environmental stakeholders.

With construction set to begin in 2021, the Wind Port has the potential to create

up to 1,500 manufacturing, assembly, and operations jobs, as well as hundreds of

construction jobs.

“Offshore wind is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to not only protect our

environment but also greatly expand our state economy in a way that has immediate

impacts and paves the way for long-term growth,” said Governor Murphy. “The New

Jersey Wind Port will create thousands of high-quality jobs, bring millions of investment

dollars to our state, and establish New Jersey as the national capital of offshore wind.

This is a vital step forward in achieving our goal of reaching 7,500 megawatts of

offshore wind power by 2035 and 100 percent clean energy by 2050.”

When launched, the New Jersey Wind Port will provide a major economic boost

to Salem County located in South Jersey, as well as the state economy. The offshore

wind projects slated for development along the East Coast over the next decade

are expected to require more than $100 billion of capital investment, creating an

opportunity for significant economic growth. New Jersey’s location at the heart of the

East Coast wind belt, commitment to supporting offshore wind, and diverse and highly

skilled workforce put the state in a strong position to capitalize on this opportunity.

Atlantic City Boardwalk

Photo courtesy of Meet AC

by SAVANNAH KING

Atlantic City’s iconic boardwalk has

drawn tourists to the city since it was

first constructed in 1870. Home to fivestar

restaurants, casinos, and the best

beachfront in the Garden State, the seaside

gaming and resort capital of the East Coast

attracts 27 million visitors each year.

In recent years, Atlantic City has shifted

from a beach town to a town and gown

community.

Quickly emerging as a hub for aviation

innovation, the National Aviation Research

and Technology Park (NARTP), a nonprofit

auxiliary organization of Stockton University,

is currently being constructed to facilitate

R&D and commercialization of new

technologies. At full build-out, the National

Aviation Research and Technology Park

(NARTP) will consist of seven multistory

buildings with high-speed connectivity to

“Ocean Wind will ensure that the state and its residents

not only benefit from clean, renewable power but that

they reap the rewards of being an early player in the

offshore wind industry as it grows in the U.S.

”

— Thomas Brostrøm, CEO of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind and President of Ørsted North America

the William J. Hughes Technical Center

(WJHTC) laboratories that replicate the

National Airspace System (NAS).

The city’s unique coastal lifestyle is now

available to students of Stockton University. In

2018, Stockton University opened its Atlantic

City to its first students. The campus includes

residential housing overlooking the beach and

the Boardwalk, an academic center and a parking

garage. The Atlantic City campus offers a shuttle

service to the main campus in Galloway.

In October, the university broke ground on

Phase II of construction, which will include a

new 6-story, 416-bed residence hall. It is being

developed as a public/private partnership by

the non-profit Atlantic City Development

Corp, or AC Devco, which also developed the

2018 Gateway Project that includes Stockton

Atlantic City and South Jersey Gas.

CATCHING A COASTAL BREEZE

The site of the state’s first offshore wind

project is located just 15 miles off Atlantic

City’s coast. In 2019, Ørsted U.S. Offshore



Higher Education Spotlight:

Rowan University

Real-world solutions are often found at Rowan University in Glassboro. A Carnegieclassified

national doctoral research institution, with a strong background in the life

sciences and engineering fields, Rowan University is a bastion of innovation.

One of just two universities in the nation that offers both M.D. and D.O. degree-granting

programs, the research institution maintains extensive partnerships with government, business

and industry operations around the world, often serving as the de facto R&D arm for them. The

University is active in drug development, medical devices, diagnostics and digital health, often

partnering with hospitals and industry to deliver customized solutions.

U.S. News & World Report ranked Rowan University’s undergraduate engineering program

#17 for 2021 among colleges in its category in its “Best Colleges” issue. U.S. News ranked

Rowan’s Mechanical Engineering program No. 13 in the nation and its Electrical Engineering

program No. 16 among colleges in its category.

“We will continue to push the barriers of mechanical engineering, solving real-world problems

and putting our students in the best positions to succeed in their careers,” stated Dr. Ratneshwar

(Ratan) Jha, head of Mechanical Engineering at Rowan.

Rowan Innovations, housed at the South Jersey Technology Park, helps entrepreneurs grow

and scale their business. Currently, the park hosts 30 tenant companies and 3 Rowan Research

Centers. Additionally, the $5 million Rowan Innovation Venture Fund supports companies in the

University and in the community.

to powering homes and businesses across

New Jersey, Ocean Wind will also bring

significant investments to New Jersey. Ørsted

will launch its Pro-NJ Trust fund in Cape

May and Atlantic counties, which will invest

up to $15 million in grants to support local

infrastructure investments and to support

small, women and minority-owned business

owners who wish to become part of the

emerging offshore wind industry. Ørsted is

also proceeding with plans to establish an

Operation and Maintenance (O&M) base in

Atlantic City that will provide permanent,

high-skilled jobs during the 25+ life span of

the project.

“Today’s announcement firmly establishes

a fast-growing global industry in New Jersey,

which will create jobs and supply chain in

the state,” said Thomas Brostrøm, CEO

of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind and President

of Ørsted North America, at the project’s

announcement. “Ocean Wind will ensure that

the state and its residents not only benefit from

clean, renewable power but that they reap the

rewards of being an early player in the offshore

wind industry as it grows in the U.S.”

Wind announced plans to build and operate

the state’s first major offshore wind project.

This wind farm will provide clean and reliable

energy, significant capital investment. It will

contribute significantly to the state’s ambitious

renewable energy goal of supplying more than

3.2 million New Jersey homes with offshore

wind power by 2035. Construction will begin

soon and is expected to be operational by

2024. At 1,100 MW, Ocean Wind is expected

to create over 3,000 direct jobs annually

through the development and three-year

construction cycle.

Ørsted has the most experience out of any

offshore wind developer, including being the

builders of the world’s first offshore wind

farm in Denmark and the first offshore wind

farm in the U.S. in Rhode Island. In addition

Higher Education Spotlight:

Rutgers Food Innovation Center

The Impossible Burger’s (a meatless alternative to a ground beef patty) rise in popularity all

began in a lab at Rutgers Food Innovation Center. In 2016, Impossible Foods founder and

CEO Pat Brown went to the Food Innovation Center at Rutgers University in Piscataway

for help with his startup. Staffed by a team of food industry veterans, the lab helped Brown

perfect his vegan burger and connected him with engineers to spec-out manufacturing

equipment and other resources to get the company off the ground.

Today, the company is taking over the meat-free market. Impossible Burger’s products can

be found all over the country, in 5-star restaurants, fast foods joints and grocery aisles. While

the company’s success might seem impossible, it’s just one of many startups to grow out of the

center.

The Food Innovation Center is a unique food business incubator at Rutgers, The State

University of New Jersey. The Center provides business and technology expertise to startup

and established food and value-added agricultural businesses, locally and globally. With two

USDA and FDA-certified manufacturing facilities in Piscataway and Bridgeton, businesses have

convenient access to guidance with everything from commercialization to distribution, while

also providing mentoring assistance in marketing, R&D, food safety, regulatory, manufacturing

and sales and distribution.

Klixge Ratphout,

Miscelaph, Icn


L I F E S C I E N C E S

The No. 1 state for the most FDAregistered

biopharma manufacturing

facilities (139 across the state), and the No.

2 state for Biotech Strength, New Jersey

leads the pack in the quest for new therapies.

Home to 13 of the top 20 pharmaceutical

companies, the state’s concentration of

research hospitals, medical schools and

universities, combined with the State’s

population density, multicultural diversity

and transportation infrastructure, makes

New Jersey a perfect location for clinical

trials. Currently, more than 2,300 open and

active trials are currently underway.

Nearly 23,000 people employed within

New Jersey’s life sciences cluster focus on

pharmaceutical manufacturing — that’s 3x

the national average. Additionally, New

Jersey is home to the highest concentrations

of specialized commercialization expertise in

the U.S. In 2019, companies with a footprint

in New Jersey represented 50% of all new

Food and Drug Administration drug and

therapy approvals.

THE RX FOR A

THRIVING LIFE

SCIENCES SECTOR

Bolstered by higher education, diversity and talent,

New Jersey’s robust life sciences sector is healthy and growing.

by SAVANNAH KING

From life-saving cancer treatments,

cures for Hepatitis-C, innovative

CAR-T cell Therapies and critical

vaccines, New Jersey is the

birthplace of medical treatments

that change people’s lives around the world.

As one of the top 3 innovation clusters in

the country — with the largest concentration

of scientists and engineers per square mile in

the U.S. — New Jersey leads the life sciences

industry. The state’s rich concentration of life

sciences and biopharmaceutical firms, not to

mention its world-class R&D cluster and deep

talent pool, offer a unique ecosystem for firms

of all sizes to grow in.

The state’s higher education institutions

produce 27,000 life sciences graduates every

year. Six of the state’s prestigious research

universities — including No. 1 ranked

Princeton University and Big Ten Academic

Alliance member Rutgers University —

offer graduate and postgraduate degrees in

biomedical and health care fields.

Photo: Getty Images


“New Jersey is a top hub for

cell and gene therapy. We are

home to groundbreaking cell

and gene therapy companies

that are leading the way in

next-generation therapeutics.”

— Jose Lozano, president and CEO of Choose New Jersey.

CELL & GENE THERAPY

Numerous life science firms have

invested in the state in recent years,

including multinational juggernauts

like GlaxoSmithKline, PLC Consumer

Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, and Bristol-

Myers Squibb. The second-largest pharma

company in Japan, Daiichi-Sankyo, chose to

open its new 305,000-sq.-ft. HQ in Basking

Ridge. Irish pharmaceutical company,

Allergan, opened a new 430,000-sq.-ft. site

in Madison. India-based Lupin Pharma

Canada and Aurobindo have both made

significant investments to expand their

presence in the state.

“New Jersey is a top hub for cell and gene

therapy,” said Jose Lozano, president and

CEO of Choose New Jersey. “We are home

to groundbreaking cell and gene therapy

companies that are leading the way in nextgeneration

therapeutics.”

In 2019, Bristol-Myers Squibb acquired

its rival New Jersey-based oncology leader

Celgene for $74 billion. The merged company

will have nine products with more than $1

billion each in annual sales — most notably

Celgene’s multiple myeloma drug Revlimid

and Bristol’s lung-cancer treatment Opdivo.

The companies said their combined pipeline

includes six expected near-term product

launches representing more than $15 billion

in revenue potential.

In August 2019, PTC Therapeutics

signed a long-term lease agreement with

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) for space at the

pharmaceutical giant’s Hopewell campus;

it represented the latest chapter in the

biopharmaceutical company’s 21-year history.

In announcing the lease of 185,000 square of

space from BMS, PTC Therapeutics officials

noted that the biopharmaceutical company

would expand its New Jersey presence to

enhance its existing global headquarters in

South Plainfield.

By expanding into Hopewell, PTC

Therapeutics will gain access to an existing

state-of-the-art biologics production facility

and supporting research and operations

building. PTC Therapeutics also plans to

move its research operations to a newly

renovated building on the same campus,

enabling the company to execute its plans

to advance its gene therapy pipeline rapidly.

The company will bring its gene therapy

manufacturing in-house and accelerate

the speed at which it develops and

commercializes products.

In October, the New Jersey Innovation

Institute (NJII) opened its cutting-edge cell

and gene therapy development and clinical

ALLERGAN

BAYER HEALTHCARE

BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB

CELGENE

ELI LILY

GLAXOSMITHKLINE PLC

JOHNSON & JOHNSON

NOVARTIS

NOVO NORDISK

PFIZER

ROCHE

SANOFI

TEVA

manufacturing center on its campus in

Newark, called BioCentriq.

“BioCentriq’s mission is to bring

together industry, technology developers,

academia and regulatory agencies

to help advance the development

and manufacturing of cell and gene

therapies,” said Dr. Haro Hartounian,

Ph.D. and SVP and GM of the

Biopharma Division. “We are thrilled

to open the doors to our center at a time

when demand for process development

and clinical manufacturing of cell and

gene therapies exceeds capacity available

from existing contract development and

manufacturing organizations. Our goal

is to provide a collaborative space where

innovative approaches and technologies

can be utilized to help make emerging

therapeutics available to the patients that

so desperately need them.”


T E C H N O L O G Y

Audible’s “Innovation

Cathedral” in

downtown Newark.

Photo courtesy of Audible

Tech Tradition

New Jersey is riding its flair for innovation into the digital age.

New Jersey has long stood at

the crossroads of America’s

technological journey. Thomas

Edison, considered America’s

greatest inventor, developed light bulbs and

the world’s first phonograph at his “Invention

Factory” in Menlo Park. Decades before the

emergence of Silicon Valley, America’s greatest

minds assembled at Bell Labs in Holmdel to

develop revolutionary technologies that shaped

the world we inhabit today, including optical,

wireless and wired communications systems.

New Jersey’s legacy of discovery carries on in

the digital age. The state’s thriving technology

ecosystem, bolstered by a highly educated

workforce, forward-looking investments in

infrastructure and the state’s proximity to

New York City, is pioneering advances in

telecommunications, artificial intelligence, big

data, financial technology and cybersecurity.

The two largest telecom companies in

the U.S. — Verizon and AT&T — both

have major facilities in New Jersey. Verizon

employs 3,900 people at its 1.4 million-sq.-ft.

by GARY DAUGHTERS

operations center in Basking Ridge, while

AT&T monitors the activity and performance

of its infrastructure from its Global Network

Operations Center in Bedminster. At AT&T

Labs in Middletown, researchers are fostering

ground-breaking advances in networking, data

mining, cloud computing and video processing.

A leading financial tech cluster, New Jersey

is home to four of the world’s top 100 fintech

companies — IPC, Cognizant, Indecomm

and NICE Actimize. BNY Mellon operates

a Global Innovation Center in Jersey City.

Cross River Bank, named by Forbes among the

Top 50 Most Innovative Fintech Companies

of 2019, is expanding to the tune of some 250

employees at its location in Fort Lee.

“We are nothing without our workforce,”

says Phillip Goldfelder, Cross River’s senior

vice president of public Affairs. “You can

have the smartest CEOs and the smartest

leadership, but if you don’t find a talented

workforce, which we found right here in New

Jersey, you’re not going to be successful.”

AUDIBLE: LEADING BY EXAMPLE

Audible, the audiobook subsidiary of

Amazon, moved its headquarters to Newark

in 2007 and has played a pivotal role in the

on-going renaissance of New Jersey’s biggest

city. Since relocating to Newark, the company’s

workforce has grown from 100 employees to

more than 1,650, having doubled in the last

five years.

“Moving Audible to Newark was one of the

best decisions this company has made,” says

founder and executive chairman Don Katz. “In

addition to our growth, the economic impact

and job creation catalyzed by Audible is a call

to arms for other companies who are joining

us and who should join us here to thrive as we

have. Continuing to invest in Newark is as

important as anything else we do.”

In 2015, Katz founded

Newark Venture Partners

(NVP), a $45 million venture

fund accelerator that attracts

early-stage companies

to become “the next 100

Audibles” in Newark, while

promoting the city as a hub

of entrepreneurship. NVP has invested in

over 65 Newark start-ups, resulting in $250

million in follow-on investment in its portfolio

companies, 55% of which have at least one

female founder or founder of color. In early

2020, Katz announced the establishment of

a follow-on fund, NVP 2, with the goal of

raising another $100 million.

“It’s time to double down,” he said, “on

NVP’s success.”

In another illustration of the company’s

commitment to Newark, Audible renovated

the city’s historic Second Presbyterian

Church, which had fallen into disrepair, into a

workplace for 400 of its employees. Dubbed the

Innovation Cathedral, the reimagined space

includes game areas, an auditorium, exhibit

space, work cafes and lounges.

“This new Innovation Cathedral is

testament to the innovative solutions that can

empower communities,” said U.S. Senator and

former Newark Mayor Cory Booker at the

groundbreaking in May 2019.

MEETING THE NEED FOR SPEED

With COVID-19 forcing work-fromhome

arrangements everywhere, New Jersey’s

position is the nationwide leader in internet

access is a hugely important economic

differentiator. Broadband Now ranks the

state No. 1 in the country for broadband

connectivity.

“Due to its combination of broad coverage,

high speeds and low pricing, New Jersey is the

most well-connected state in the U.S.,” says the

internet ranking service. “Over 99% of New

Jerseyans have access to a wired connection

with speeds of 100 Mbps (Megabits per second)

or faster, and 67% of the state’s population has

access to fiber-optic internet services, which

is well over the national average of 25% of

Americans with access to fiber.

“Additionally, affordability data reveals that

78.4% of New Jerseyans have access to a lowpriced

internet plan ($60/month or less), which

is significantly higher than the nationwide

average of 51.5% of consumers with access to

the same.”

“Moving Audible to Newark was one of the

best decisions this company has made.

”

— Don Katz, Founder and Executive Chairman, Audible

The five New Jersey cities with the best

internet service, says Broadband Now,

are Paterson, Basking Ridge, Bayonnes,

Ridgewood and Asbury Park. Paterson tops

the list as tops in the state and second-highest

ranking city in the nation.

New Jersey’s superior access to broadband

is supported by some 66 data centers, one of

the highest concentrations in the country. That

robust infrastructure includes 64 colocation

facilities, 49 cloud nodes, 22 internet exchanges

and 23 disaster recovery and business continuity

(DRBC) sites.

The need for speed has boosted Newark’s

appeal to tech-heavy users, financial tech

companies in particular. More than a decade

ago, the city installed more than 25 miles of

underground municipal fiber, which has helped

give the city one of the top data infrastructures

in the country.

Newark can deliver more than 100

gigabits per second from the so-named East

Coast Telco Hotel at 165 Halsey Street,

the gathering point for as many as 60 data

communications companies offering Internet

connections throughout northern New

Jersey. The building’s tenants and colocation

providers include Morgan Stanley, Verizon,

CenturyLink, Equinix, Telecom Italia and BT

Americas.



A D V A N C E D M A N U F A C T U R I N G

A Higher-Ed

Ecosystem

In a League

Of Its Own

by MARK AREND

Image: Getty Images

On March 9th, the U.S. Department

of Energy (DOE)’s Clean Energy

Smart Manufacturing Innovation

Institute (CESMII) announced more than

$6 million for eight projects to improve

energy-intensive manufacturing processes and

strengthen the U.S. manufacturing sector.

One is a collaboration among Rutgers, the

State University of New Jersey, and Janssen

Pharmaceuticals to develop advanced process

models, sensors and data integration architecture

that will be demonstrated on wet granulation,

drying and milling in pharmaceutical

manufacturing processes.

CESMII is a part of Manufacturing USA,

a network of regional institutes that have

a specialized technology focus to increase

U.S. manufacturing competitiveness and

promote a robust and sustainable national

manufacturing research and development

(R&D) infrastructure. CESMII works with

American companies to spur innovations in new,

integrated, systematic “smart” manufacturing

processes with a highly skilled manufacturing

workforce and a vibrant supply chain.

It stands to reason that New Jersey would

attract some of the CESMII funding.

It’s an advanced manufacturing hub with

more than 2,500 such companies directly

employing more than 245,000 workers. These

companies contribute more than $38 billion

to the state’s GDP — up 6.3% since 2013. Two

thirds of all manufacturing employment is

classified as advanced, in sectors that include

biopharmaceuticals and medical devices (43%),

chemicals (18%), electronics (7%), fabricated

metals (5%), and machinery (4%) among others.

INSTITUTES, PARTNERSHIPS

MEET TALENT DEMAND

Rutgers is home of the New Jersey

Advanced Manufacturing Institute to “serve

as a focal point for the state’s programs in this

critical area,” explains its website. “NJAMI

will allow Rutgers Engineering to leverage its

current strong business partnerships and build

new and robust industry networks, as well as

develop high-tech ecosystems to attract major

federal, state, and private investment. It will

provide a platform to develop new research that

can lead to commercialization and licensing

opportunities, business development and new

well-paying jobs throughout the state.”

Other higher-ed resources for the

sector include the New Jersey Institute of

Technology’s Center for Manufacturing

Systems and its Makerspace prototyping and

collaboration facility in Newark for testing

ideas and bringing them to scale using

3D printing and robotics. The New Jersey

Community College Consortium (NJCC)’s

Advanced Manufacturing Training Initiative

consults with companies on workforce

development and recruits, trains and certifies

individuals to fill job openings at New Jersey

manufacturers.

The County College of Morris (CCM)

opened its $11 million, 31,500-sq.-ft. Advanced

Manufacturing and Engineering Center in

the spring of 2020. “This new facility, like all

of our buildings, is more than a structure. It

is a resource for the community. As such, it is

intended to support regional manufacturers by

providing an innovative and inspiring learning

environment where today’s students become

tomorrow’s engineers,” said Dr. Anthony

J. Iacono, CCM president. “It will allow

CCM to expand upon its work of producing

a pipeline of skilled workers. And, equally

important, it provides a home-base for all

regional manufacturers who seek to ensure that

their current employees have the opportunity

to engage in cutting-edge training so their

companies can remain industry leaders.”

In October 2020, Stevens Institute of

Technology in Hoboken and Seton Hall

University, South Orange, announced the

launch of a dual-degree program, offering

students an opportunity to earn an accelerated

bachelor’s degree in physics from Seton Hall

and a master’s degree in engineering or artificial

intelligence from Stevens in five years. This

strategic academic partnership establishes a

shared commitment to create a highly trained

workforce in the science and engineering hub of

this state and this nation.

“This program combines the distinctive

strengths of both institutions to create pathways

for even greater success for our students,” said

Joseph E. Nyre, Ph.D., president of Seton Hall.

“STEM education is vital to America’s global

leadership in science and technology. This

program offers a strong, technical, values-based

education to meet the nation’s growing need

for classically trained engineers and scientists.

Innovative partnerships like this one will

continue to keep New Jersey at the forefront of

excellence in higher education.”

Recent corporate investments in New

Jersey’s advanced manufacturing sector

include: Old Bridge Chemicals’ recently

completed expansion of its manufacturing

operations that more than doubles its zinc

sulfate manufacturing capacity in Old Bridge;

dessert ingredient maker Puratos Groups’

new $10 million, 23,700-sq.-ft. headquarters

and Innovation Center in Pennsauken; and

Gerresheimer’s recently opened Gx Glass

Innovation and Technology Center for the

pharmaceutical sector in Vineland.



F O O D & B E V E R A G E

From Farm

To Table

New Jersey’s food and beverage

business grows from the ground up.

by GARY DAUGHTERS

Ironside Newark will

house the new U.S.

headquarters of Mars

Wrigley Confectionary

Photo courtesy

Edison Properties

New Jersey is called the Garden State

with good reason. With more than

9,000 farms spread across some

750,000 acres, New Jersey generates tens of

billions of dollars in farm revenue annually.

In total, New Jersey farmland yields

more than 100 different varieties of fruits,

vegetables, and herbs and is ranked in the Top

10 nationally in blueberries, spinach, asparagus,

peaches, bell peppers, squash, tomatoes and

cranberries. From that foundation springs

a thriving food and beverage industry that

has grown to include more than 50,000 food

manufacturing companies, R&D facilities,

retailers and farms — employing more than

444,000 people.

LOCAL FLAVOR ABOUNDS

Donkey’s Place in Camden offers a

cheesesteak considered by afficionados to be

superior to anything found across the river

in Philadelphia. Hobby’s, an “old fashioned

Jewish delicatessen” in Newark, pickles its

legendary corned beef in fifty-gallon stainless

steel vats. Razza, an artisanal pizza joint in

Jersey City, has been hailed as the best pizza

purveyor in the country. Craft beer? Amble

into the new Untied Brewing Company in

Providence and order up an Al Morgan’s Stout,

named for the city’s mayor.

And you might be surprised at what

you can find off the beaten path. Wineries,

breweries and distilleries dot New Jersey’s

rural landscapes, as do independently run

restaurants, farm-to-consumer operations and

community farmers markets like the one that’s

already expanded since its recent opening

behind the municipal building in Howell

Township. Harvest Drop in Highstown,

southeast of Princeton, supplied New

Jersey-grown produce to local eateries until

COVID-19 hit the restaurant industry; on a

dime it switched to home delivery and now can

hardly fill its orders fast enough. Harvest Drop

ships out of state to New York, Connecticut

and Massachusetts.

MAJOR PLAYERS

Make no mistake, though, food and

beverage in New Jersey is big business.

Located in the middle of the Boston-New

York City-Washington, D.C. corridor, New

Jersey provides easy access to one of the most

affluent consumer markets in the world, which

has helped to propel and food and beverage

behemoth that generates $126 billion a year. A

distribution center in central New Jersey can

serve more than 38 million consumers within

150 miles.

“Location, location, location,” says Bob

Unanue, president of Jersey City-based Goya

Foods, the largest Hispanic-owned food

company in the U.S. “We’re in a strategic spot,”

he says, “to be in the food business.”

New Jersey’s transportation infrastructure

is a potent complement to the state’s strategic

location. The Port of New York and New Jersey

is the second-busiest port for imports in North

America and the largest on the East Coast,

which facilitates robust imports and exports of

food products. Wakefern Food Corporation,

headquartered in Keasbey, southwest of New

York City, is the nation’s largest retailer-owned

food distribution cooperative. Wakefern

utilizes 2.5 million sq. ft. of warehouse space

located within a mile of port docks to allow

for one-day shipping to its 190 member stores

in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut,

Pennsylvania and Delaware.

As New Jersey boasts the nation’s highest

concentration of scientists and engineers and

is ranked No. 2 in the nation at educating

students at all levels, it has developed into a

magnet for food and beverage headquarters

and R & D operations. Nestlé Health Science,

one of the subsidiaries of the Swiss food

giant, cited the “commercial and technical

competence” of the New Jersey Region’s

workforce for its decision to build a $70 million

Product Technology Center in Bridgewater.

Mondelez, the snack food conglomerate, has

not only a significant manufacturing presence

in New Jersey, but also its headquarters and R

& D Center.

Mars Wrigley Confectionary, in a nod to

tradition, is returning to its roots in Newark,

where one of its precursor companies made

the first M&M’s before World War II.

Helped by the lure of a 10-year, $31.5 million

tax credit awarded by New Jersey’s Economic

Development Authority, Mars Wrigley is to

bring 500 jobs to its new U.S. headquarters in

the city’s resurgent Ironbound neighborhood.

The sweets provider will be the anchor tenant

in an $80 million renovated warehouse known

as Ironside Newark, whose tenants also include

Oren’s Daily Roast, a Manhattan coffee

business, and Halal Guys, the fast-casual halal

restaurant that also started in New York City.

Mars Wrigley already produces nearly half

of the M&M’s it sells in the U.S. at a massive

installation in Hackettstown first established in

1958. Spread out over 104 acres, the compound

also serves as headquarters of Mars Chocolate

North American, which manages an array of

candy brands, from Dove Bars to Twix.

MOMENTUM IN THE INDUSTRY

The explosive growth of e-commerce plays

to New Jersey’s dominant position in food

storage and logistics.

“Demand of cold storage is at an all-time

high,” says Chris Pennington, senior vice

president and partner for Philadelphiabased

Binswanger Commercial Real Estate

Services. “Southern New Jersey has proven

to be one of the hottest markets in the mid-

Atlantic region.”

Binswanger recently brokered the $7.4

million sale of a 190,000-sq.-ft. cold storage

warehouse in Pennsauken to Kenover

Marketing Corp., which acquired the kosher

food business of Newark-based Manischewitz

in 2019. The building includes more than

20,000 sq. ft. of cold storage space and

16,000 sq. ft. of office space. Kenover is to

operate its subsidiary, Royal Wine, from the

Pennsauken site.

In 2020, new cold storage facilities for food

distribution came on-line in Vineland (AJ

Trucco, KRES Cold Storage) and Fair Lawn

(RD Foods Americas), while Chicago-based

Mark Anthony Brewing signed space at an

industrial campus in Phillipsburg to store and

distribute White Claw beverages. The sixwarehouse

campus is expected to employ 100

workers when its fully operational.

Shakti Group USA, a family-owned global

importer and distributor of specialty foods,

recently doubled its footprint in Hamilton

Township with the support of the New Jersey

Economic Development Authority’s (NJEDA)

Premier Lending Program. Having outgrown

its previous space, Shakti Group purchased

an 80,000-sq.-ft. warehouse in Hamilton to

serve as its national headquarters. Through

the Premier Lending Program, the company

leveraged financing from a $5.4 million Bank of

America loan to support the purchase.



L O G I S T I C S

Through

The Roof

E-Commerce Means More Roofs On the Way to

Accommodate New Jersey Demand

Boosted by

e-commerce, cold

storage and portdriven

volume, New

Jersey’s industrial

market is reaching

record occupancy

levels and stretching

the radius of logistics

development sites.

Photo: Getty Images

Y

eah, sure, okay: The nation’s No. 1 truck

bottleneck for two years running has

been where I-95 meets New Jersey State

Road 4 in Fort Lee, near the George

Washington Bridge to New York. But that

kinda comes with the territory when you’re one

of the densest populations in the nation.

“Typically, we see the most

egregious truck bottlenecks

in locations where you have

high population density,

because population density requires all the

things that get delivered by a truck,” Rebecca

Brewster, president and CEO of the American

Transportation Research Association (ATRI),

told Site Selection’s Gary Daughters in

early 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic

struck. Even then, the rise of e-commerce was

stretching the market beyond Exits 8 and 8A

on the New Jersey Turnpike.

“Distribution warehouses are growing by

the gazillions in New Jersey because we’re close

to the largest consumer market in the world,”

Gail Toth, executive director of the New Jersey

Motor Truck Association, told Daughters.

Fast forward to late 2020, and the logistics

by ADAM BRUNS

scene is one of the few business sectors in

growth mode. New Jersey is one of the places

to capitalize.

“For the first time in our history we are

pretty much 100% leased,” says Brian Sudler,

vice president of development for Chatham,

New Jersey–based industrial developer

The Sudler Companies,

founded in the area in 1907.

“Everything’s been gobbled

up, including our three-specbuilding

project in Lakewood off the Garden

State Parkway, which were all pre-leased before

they were even built. We are building a fourth

building there for a long-time tenant of ours

who needed another building and knew we had

bought the land across the street from them.”

“If we could put up 2 million square feet

tomorrow, we could probably lease it pretty

quickly,” says Jeff Hale, Sudler Companies’

vice president of leasing. “Target just took 1.7

milllion, Amazon has taken millions of square

feet. Add that to the other players, and you’re

at record occupancy levels.”

That’s really saying something after New

Jersey’s historic year of 2018, when 25.7 million


AMAZON

FULFILLMENT

& SORTATION

CENTERS IN

NEW JERSEY

LOGAN

TOWNSHIP

CARNEY’S

POINT

78

80

CRANBERRY

TOWNSHIP

BURLINGTON

WEST DEPTFORD

287

TETERBORO

AVENEL

FLORENCE

EDISON

ROBBINSVILLE

Amazon currently operates 15 fulfillment and sortation centers across 10

sites in the state, including a new 1,000-job fulfillment and sortation site just

launched in Cranbury Township. An 800-job fulfillment center in Carneys

Point, two new sortation centers in Burlington and a new sortation center in

Edison will further add to the company’s New Jersey portfolio.

95

CATERET

turnpike, like Exit 8 or 8A, historically were

always heavy industrial, but nobody went south

of there.” Now warehouse and logistics projects

are popping up around exits 7 and 6, even all

the way down to exit 4, he says. “And the rents

are following suit.”

But they keep coming. Among the projects

Sudler has helped come to fruition is a new

North American headquarters, distribution

center and artist studio space in Piscataway for

Colart, the artist materials company founded

300 years ago in London.

“We are planning on redeveloping 10

Corporate Place South, right next door,” Sudler

says. “It’s an old 1980s office building — we

are going to completely raze that building

and build a 65,000-sq.-ft. warehouse. We’re

confident it will pre-lease. Somebody will want

that whole building for themselves. Piscataway

became a very hot area overnight.”

In fact, it’s the only other New Jersey area

besides Fort Lee on the nation’s Top 100 most

congested list. That’s because of its location at

the confluence of major thoroughfares, with

entrances to the New Jersey Turnpike and

Garden State Parkway just down the road.

Hale says the company has had good

success turning former office space locations

into industrial properties, most recently

completing a project in Cranbury Township.

He says outmoded office space and regional

retail centers are both “getting hard looks right

now” for potential industrial repurposing. In

the meantime, it may not be too far in the

future when warehouses start to go up higher

instead of out farther, much as has happened

in Europe.

“I see that happening,” says Hale. “It’s going

to have to happen, because most requirements

have pushed out to real limitations outside of

the market.”

and investment in New Jersey with a new

fulfillment center in Carneys Point Township

that will serve our customers across the

state,” said Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon’s

vice president of global customer fulfillment.

“For more than a decade, New Jersey and its

incredible workforce have been vital to our

ability to provide great selection, competitive

prices and the Prime services we know our

customers love.”

The project follows another new Amazon

fulfillment center and sortation center in

Cranbury, creating more than 1,000 new jobs,

and three additional sortation centers across

the state throughout the month of October

— two in Burlington and one in Edison —

creating hundreds of full- and part-time jobs.

The new employees will join more than 34,000

full- and part-time Amazonians already

working across the state, the company says.

“Since 2010, Amazon has invested $14.5+ billion

across New Jersey, including infrastructure

and compensation to its employees, which

has contributed $14.7+ billion to the state’s

economy and helped create more than 30,000

indirect jobs on top of Amazon’s direct hires

— from jobs in construction and logistics to

professional services,” Amazon stated.

AMONG OTHER PROJECTS:

South Korea’s LG Electronics USA signed

a seven-year, 925,000-sq.-ft. lease with Crow

Holdings Industrial for a nearly completed

building in Franklin Township. Later in 2020,

Crow sold the building to BentallGreenOak,

on behalf of an institutional investor, for $164

million. Not bad for Crow’s first foray in the

Northeast from its Texas base.

“While the pandemic has brought most

investment activity to a standstill, there is

still tremendous demand for state-of the-art

logistics properties,” said Clark Machemer,

senior managing director of Crow Holdings

Industrial’s Northeast region. “With

collaboration from the municipality and

our key partners on this project, we were

able to acquire, build and lease the property

in less than 18 months, leveraging our

extensive market knowledge and an expedited

construction timeline to bring much-needed

industrial space to Central New Jersey.”

In Piscataway in 2019, New York–based

global beauty company Kiss Products

purchased a 469,600-sq.-ft. distribution

building at the 2.2-million-sq.-ft. Rockefeller

Group Logistics Center for $65.7 million. “Kiss

is excited to be relocating its distribution center

to Piscataway and consolidating our four Long

Island distribution locations at Rockefeller

Group Logistics Center,” said Richard Kim,

CFO of Kiss Products, Inc. “Piscataway’s

proximity to the port of Newark/Elizabeth

makes it an attractive location for reaching our

customers nationally.”

Talk about repurposing: The entire logistics

center site was a former Union Carbide

industrial manufacturing campus. Building on

a roster of tenants that includes not only Kiss,

but also Best Buy, Fujitsu General and global

logistics giant Kuehne + Nagel, Rockefeller

broke ground for another 400,000-sq.-ft.

building at the site in September 2020.

sq. ft. of industrial space was leased and

vacancy was lowered to 3.2%. With that result,

New Jersey exceeded 10 million square feet in

annual absorption for five years in a row, for a

total of more than 67 million sq. ft.

TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT

The demand, of course, comes from being

in a region with 9 million people nearby and

between 30 million and 40 million within a

truck turn.

“E-commerce has gone through the roof,”

Sudler says. “Locations in New Jersey along the

PROJECT WATCH

The chart here presents some of the dozens

of corporate end user logistics projects tracked

by Conway Data, publisher of Site Selection

magazine, since the beginning of 2019. At the

top of the list — as they are in many states

today — is Amazon, which in October 2020

announced a new 800-job fulfillment center in

Carneys Point in Salem County would join

the company’s 15 other fulfillment and

sortation centers across the state in Avenel,

Burlington, Carteret, Cranbury Township,

Edison, Florence, Logan Township,

Robbinsville, Teterboro and West Deptford.

“We are proud to continue our growth


C L E A N E N E R G Y

OFFSHORE WIND

IS KEY TO MEETING

CLEAN ENERGY GOALS

The planned 30-acre marshalling

port and 130+ acres of adjacent

manufacturing space at the New

Jersey Wind Port. Construction is

set to begin in 2021.

FUNDS FOR

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

In September 2020, NJEDA and

NJBPU approved two Memoranda

of Understanding (MOUs) that will

make nearly $6 million available

to support offshore wind and other

clean energy projects in the State.

Under the agreements, New Jersey’s

Clean Energy Program (NJCEP),

which is administered by NJBPU,

will provide $4.5 million to support

NJEDA-led workforce development

projects aimed at preparing more

New Jersey workers for jobs in

offshore wind, and $1.25 million to

support early-stage, New Jersey-based

cleantech companies.

“Ever since Governor Murphy

took office, we have been moving

at a whirlwind pace on offshore

wind, and especially with the twin

crises of COVID-19’s economic

devastation and climate change,

we are not slowing down any time

soon,” said NJBPU President Joseph

L. Fiordaliso. “Fueling our clean

energy renaissance will be renewables

like offshore wind, and since these

industries don’t build themselves, we

couldn’t be prouder to be developing

a homegrown, inclusive, world-class

workforce of cleantech and offshore

wind technicians right here in the

Garden State. New Jersey has the

wind, and the time to get in on our

new innovation economy — located

in the strong winds right off our 130-

mile coastline — is now.”

In June 2020, Governor Murphy

announced plans to develop the New

Jersey Wind Port, a first-in-thenation

infrastructure investment that

will provide a location for essential

staging, assembly, and manufacturing

activities related to offshore wind

projects on the East Coast. The Wind

Port has the potential to create up to

1,500 manufacturing, assembly, and

operations jobs, as well as hundreds

of construction jobs in New Jersey.

Manufacturing and marshalling

projects supported by the Wind

Port will drive economic growth in

Salem County, in South Jersey, and

throughout the state.

“Offshore wind is a once-in-ageneration

opportunity to not only

protect our environment but also

greatly expand our state economy in a

way that has immediate impacts and

paves the way for long-term growth,”

said the governor. “The New Jersey

Wind Port will create thousands of

high-quality jobs, bring millions of

investment dollars to our state, and

establish New Jersey as the national

capital of offshore wind. This is a vital

step forward in achieving our goal of

reaching 7,500 megawatts of offshore

wind power by 2035 and 100 percent

clean energy by 2050.”

More information about New

Jersey’s offshore wind industry

and other resources, including

the Offshore Wind Supply Chain

Registry, can be found at https://

www.njeda.com/offshorewind.

It’s getting breezy in New

Jersey, where a burgeoning

offshore wind (OSW)

industry is taking shape.

The New Jersey Economic

Development Authority (NJEDA)

announced its proposal for an Offshore

Wind Technical Assistance Program

in October 2019 that will help local

companies develop the skills and

competencies needed to participate in

it. They’ll need them soon: The Clean

Energy Act of 2018 laid out a goal for

New Jersey of achieving 3,500 MW of

OSW energy by 2030 and 100 percent

clean energy in the state by 2050.

To achieve these goals, the

NJEDA, through its Office of

Economic Transformation (OET),

is working closely with the Board

of Public Utilities (NJBPU), the

Department of Environmental

Protection (NJDEP) and other

agencies on the Offshore Wind Task

Force to expand New Jersey’s offshore

wind industry with programs such

as the Offshore Wind Tax Credit

(see sidebar) and the Offshore Wind

Supply Chain Registry. The Registry

allows companies to publicly indicate

their interest and ability to supply

components and services for U.S. East

Coast offshore wind projects.

by MARK AREND

New Jersey’s push into OSW

energy gained traction in August 2010,

when the Offshore Wind Economic

Development Act (OWEDA) was

signed into law by then-Governor

Christie. The act advised the Board of

Public Utilities to establish a program

for Offshore Wind Renewable Energy

Certificates (ORECs) to incentivize

development of offshore wind

facilities. It also required a percentage

of electricity sold by New Jersey

suppliers to come from offshore wind

and provided a $100 million tax credit

for businesses related to the wind

energy supply chain who established

themselves within a designated Wind

Energy Zone.

“Offshore wind is the foundation of

Governor Phil Murphy’s vision for 100

percent clean energy and a cornerstone

of his plan for a stronger, fairer New

Jersey economy,” said NJEDA CEO

Tim Sullivan announcing the Offshore

Wind Technical Assistance Program.

“New Jersey is well-positioned to

become America’s offshore wind

capital, and the Offshore Wind

Technical Assistance Program will

ensure New Jersey businesses and

workers are equipped with the skills

and industry expertise they need to

take advantage of this unprecedented

growth opportunity.”

The 2019 proposal anticipates

that NJEDA will contract with

an experienced OSW advisory

and certification company to help

participating small- and mediumsized

businesses assess their current

capacity to supply the OSW market

and develop an action plan to get up

to the current industry standards.

Companies that complete the proposed

program will receive assistance

implementing their action plan and

will be independently certified with

industry credentials that are important

for securing contracts.



F I L M & M E D I A

Rolling Out

The Red Carpet

by SAVANNAH KING

New Jersey gives its film

and media industry the

star treatment.

Long before the first movie was ever

filmed in Hollywood, New Jersey

was already setting the scene for

the emerging film industry. In the late

1880s, famed inventor Thomas Edison and his

team were busy perfecting the kinetograph

and kinetoscope — precursors to the motion

picture camera and projectors used by

movie makers today. The world’s firm film

production studio — the Black Maria —

was built in West Orange on the grounds of

Edison’s laboratory.

Today, the state is home to a robust and

well-connected film and television industry

with abundant talent, low cost and diverse

scenery to boot. Motion picture and television

production in New Jersey has increased

dramatically since the Garden State Film, and

Digital Media Jobs Act took effect in 2018. In

2019, film and television production generated

more than $400 million for the state economy

and created thousands of jobs. Other major

motion pictures filmed here recently include

The Many Saints of Newark, Army of the

Dead, Beauty, and Trial of the Chicago 7, all

scheduled to be released later this year and

into 2021.

The New Jersey Film & Digital Media

Tax Credit program offers eligible production

companies a 30-35% transferable tax credit

to use on production expenses. To encourage

film productions to employ minorities in

above-the-line and below-the-line positions,

productions that develop and execute an

approved diversity and inclusion plan can

receive an additional 2% bonus. Additionally,

digital media projects can qualify for a

20-25% tax credit under separate eligibility

requirements.

New Jersey is home to 21 counties and 565

municipalities, providing an easily accessible

and widely varied landscape for filming. New

Jersey’s online digital location library offers a

content-rich, searchable database of thousands

of sites across the state when scouting out the

best locations.

Though not a large state, New Jersey has a

unique and varied topography. The Northwest

part of the state is traversed by low mountain

ridges with valleys and rolling hillsides

and is dotted with lakes and waterways.

Southeast New Jersey is hilly before it reaches

the Palisades, stunning natural cliffs that

rise 200 to 500 feet above from the Hudson

River. The Southern interior of the state is

more commonly known as the Pine Barrens

and is home to several large cranberry bogs.

Whether a film needs sandy shorelines, urban

skylines or rural country views, New Jersey

is one of the few states that can replicate the

look of any other region in the country.

The state’s proximity to New York City

and Philadelphia only bolsters its position in

the film industry. New Jersey falls within the

25-mile New York Studio Film Zone. As one

of the most connected states in the Northeast,

moving cast and crew around the region is easy.

With a deep talent pool of skilled artists and

craftspeople, New Jersey offers a world-class,

expanding production infrastructure. New

Jersey has the most film and TV professionals

outside of Hollywood — from screenwriters

to set designers. The state’s network of vendors

assures productions have access to the support

services they need to get the job done.

THROUGH THE LENS: ON LOCATION

Recent Productions filmed in New Jersey

FILMS

West Side Story (20th Century Fox)

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Paramount Pictures)

The Many Saints of Newark (Warner Bros.)

Joker (Warner Bros.)

Army of the Dead (Netflix)

Chemical Hearts (Amazon Studios)

Television Programs

The Enemy Within (NBC)

Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector (NBC)

Emergence (ABC)

The Plot Against America (HBO)

Hunters (Amazon)

Little America (Apple TV+)

Geico

Under Armour

Burger King

Ford

Verizon

E*Trade

Commercials

Photos courtesy New Jersey

Motion Picture & Television

Commission



Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E

PUT DOWN

ROOTS IN THE

GARDEN STATE

Six great reasons to live and grow in New Jersey.

by SAVANNAH KING

Atlantic City

Photo: Getty Images

One of the most ethnically

diverse states in the U.S.,

people from all over the

world are proud to call the

Garden State home.

With its well-connected

infrastructure, residents can travel

around the state and the broader

region with ease. Whether visiting

the boardwalk in Atlantic City,

rafting down the Delaware River, or

catching a game at MetLife Stadium,

there is always something to see

and do around every corner of the

Garden State.

We’ve compiled a list of six

great reasons to make the move to

New Jersey.

• Outdoor Recreation: Whether

hiking along the Appalachian

Trail or soaking up some rays on

the coast, New Jersey offers the

very best of nature’s playground.

Drive an hour in any direction,

and you’ll find yourself among

dense pine forests, gorgeous

mountain peaks, quiet streams

or sandy beaches. New Jersey’s

Atlantic coastline spans 130 miles

from Sandy Hook to Cape May.

Asbury Park is the No. 2 beach

in America, according to Coastal

Living in 2018.

• Best for Families: Earlier this

year, WalletHub ranked New

Jersey as the No. 4 Happiest State

in the country in 2020 — behind

only Hawaii, Utah and Minnesota.

Home to world-class health care

and educational institutions,

the Garden State is also one of

the safest and healthiest places

for families. Save the Children

organization ranked New Jersey

the #1 state to raise children in the

U.S. based on health and safety

outcomes.

• Urban Amenities: From mouthwatering

farm-to-table restaurants,

an exciting nightlife, and upscale

boutique shopping, New Jersey’s

metro areas offer all the flavor and

fun one would expect from one

of the most diverse states in the

country. With upscale boutiques

and sprawling outlets, New Jersey

offers a wide variety of retail

therapy. In fact, New Jersey has

the most shopping malls in one

area in the world — 7 within a 25-

mile radius.

• Top-Notch Education: Do you

want your children to have access

to some of the best educational

opportunities in the U.S.? Move

to New Jersey. The Garden State is

the No. 1 state for early childhood

education, according to U.S. News

& World Report. It’s also home to

the No. 1 public school system and

the No. 1 university in the U.S.

(Princeton University). The state

is uniquely able to provide worldclass

education from K-12 to higher

education and beyond. With 63

colleges and universities across the

state, there’s a program of study

available around every corner.

• Arts and Culture: Though the

world-class arts and cultural

amenities of New York City are

just a short train ride away, the

state offers countless attractions

closer to home. With nearly 100

professional regional theaters, 150

museums and a vast music scene

(home to famous musical artists

like Frank Sinatra, Whitney

Houston, Bruce Springsteen

and Bon Jovi), there’s always

something to see and do in the

Garden State.

• Sports: From football to golf

and everything in between,

New Jersey offers a home-field

advantage for die-hard sports

fans. Football’s New York’s Jets

and Giants play in the 2.1 millionsquare-foot

MetLife Stadium

in the Meadowlands Sports

Complex. The National Hockey

League’s New Jersey Devils play at

Newark’s Prudential Center, while

Major League Soccer’s New York

Bulls play at the Red Bull Arena

in Harrison. Pine Valley has been

the No. 1 golf course in the U.S.

since 1985.



I N D E X T O A D V E R T I S E R S

Advertiser

Page

Atlantic City International Airport .............................................. 71

www.acairport.com

Choose New Jersey . ......................................................... BC

www.NJinnovation.com

City of Vineland Economic Development ........................................59

www.vinelandcity.org

Cooper’s Ferry Partnership ..................................................... 5

www.coopersferry.com

FirstEnergy Corp./Jersey Central Power & Light .................................. 75

www.firstenergycorp.com/ed

Hudson County Economic Development Corp. ...................................50

www.hudsonedc.org

Invest Newark ...............................................................35

www.investnewark.org

Jersey City Economic Development Corp. ................................... 48-49

www.jcedc.org

Joseph Jingoli & Son, Inc. ...................................................... 7

www.jingoli.com

Kean University ........................................................19, 40-41

www.kean.edu

Mercer County Office of Economic Development .................................54

www.mercercounty.org/work/economic-development

Middlesex County Office of Economic & Business Development .....................63

www.middlesexcountynj.gov

Montclair State University .....................................................23

www.montclair.edu

Morris County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Corp. ............ 51

www.morrischamber.org

New Brunswick Development Corp. . .........................................28-29

www.devco.org

New Jersey American Water. ...................................................44

http://newjerseyamwater.com

New Jersey City University ....................................................16

www.njcu.edu/changeagent

New Jersey Economic Development Authority ....................................61

www.njeda.com

New Jersey Institute of Technology ............................................. 33

www.njit.edu

NJM Insurance Group ......................................................... 17

www.njm.com

Onyx Equities, LLC. ........................................................ IFC-1

www.onyxequities.com

Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PSE&G) .....................................45

www.pseg.com

Rowan University. ........................................................... 2-3

www.rowan.edu

Somerset County Business Partnership ..........................................55

www.scbp.org/resource-hub

Stockton University .......................................................... 73

www.stockton.edu/ac


2020 New Jersey Guide_Site Selection

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