About
Downtown New Jersey is the organization of individuals, businesses, government agencies, and local and regional organizations that are passionate about downtowns. Downtowns reflect our communities’ unique identities, provide a focal point, a convenient local place of commerce, and offer a sense of place where people can gather and truly be community.
Downtown New Jersey is a resource dedicated to ensuring the vitality of our downtowns. Count on us as your resource for anything regarding downtowns in New Jersey.
Mission
Downtown New Jersey acts as an advocate for downtown commercial districts in New Jersey to:
- Provide information and educational opportunities for professional downtown and commercial district revitalization organizations;
- Recognize the best efforts of these organizations;
- Track judicial and legislative issues that can affect the success of New Jersey’s downtown commercial districts;
- Provide opportunities to foster communication among the business, government and professional communities concerned with the well-being of downtown and commercial districts;
- Inform and educate membership on legislative issues involving downtowns and commercial business districts.
President's Message
2024 was quite a year. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished, grateful for the support we’ve received, and excited about what 2025 will bring.
2024 has been a year of changes. I was installed as the President of Downtown New Jersey at the start of the year. Our new executive director, Natalie Pineiro, joined the team in July. At our annual meeting at the League of Municipalities in November, Courtenay Mercer joined the Board and was elected Treasurer.
Downtown New Jersey held its Annual Conference with members, partners and experts in December at The Mezzanine, a new event venue in the middle of Montclair’s Special Improvement District. With a mix of new and seasoned attendees, we envisioned what our dream downtowns were with James Rojas. We celebrated leaders and projects and we had a peek into place-making activation at Lackawanna Station. Thank you to our sponsors and partners.
In 2025, we will continue to provide stellar programs and to implement our new strategic plan that will strengthen Downtown New Jersey. We aim to build our resources for SIDs and downtown districts across the state.
Thank you to our members. Let us know how we’re doing and how we can help your downtown and main street thrive!
Best wishes,
Vanessa N. Quijano | President
Board of Directors
Officers
Vanessa N. Quijano
President
NJ Community Capital
THOMAS STROWE
Vice President
Scotch Plains Township
Meg Brill
Vice President
Downtown West Orange Alliance
Courtenay Mercer
Treasurer
Mercer Planning Associates
Board Members
Phil Abramson
Topology
Nancy Adams
Summit Downtown Inc.
Susan Adelizzi-Schmidt
Suasion Communications Group
GabRIEL Bailer
Harbor Consultants Inc.
Zoe Baldwin
Regional Plan Association
Chris Bernardo
Commercial District Services, LLC
Jef Buehler
NJ Business Action Center
Michael Cerra
New Jersey State League of Municipalities
Noelia colon
Perth Amboy BID
Orlando Cruz
Downtown Paterson SID
Roxanne Earley
Hoboken Business Alliance
Abbie Galie
Destination Medford, Visit Burlco
Robert Goldsmith Esq.
Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis
Steve Grillo
Explore Millburn-Short Hills
Melissa Hodge
South Orange Downtown
Deborah Hoffman
Passaic County, Division of Economic Development
Michael Kahn
Stuart Koperweis
Economic Development Strategists, LLC
Jay Kruse
ESE Consultants, Inc.
Beth Lippman
Livingston Community Partnership Management Corp
Emily Manz
Invest Newark
Robert Peluso
Parsippany Area Chamber of Commerce
Maggie Peters
New Jersey Economic Development Authority
janet Ristuccia
Gensler
Abhishake Shah
Montclair Center BID
Debra Tantleff
Tantum Realty
Marta Villa
CBRE