Feb. 5, 2018: Downtown New Jersey (“DNJ”), a statewide non-profit membership organization comprised of individuals, businesses, developers, government agencies, and local entities that are passionate about downtowns, has made policy recommendations to Governor Murphy’s administration that the organization hopes will result in a renewed commitment to the state’s downtowns from Trenton.
Dec. 8, 2017: For decades, New Jersey has experienced notable success with redeveloping many of its distressed areas by affording municipalities the ability to offer tax incentives (i.e., PILOTs) to redevelopers. These incentives encourage redevelopers to accept the substantial risks and additional costs that come with most projects.
Downtown New Jersey President Robert Goldsmith Esq. has sent to state Sen. Robert Gordon a letter indicating the organization’s support of Senate bill S3222, which would allow a municipality to issue one license allowing sales of alcoholic beverages in a downtown business improvement zone, pedestrian mall, or special improvement district.
April 4, 2017: If you were planning to build a parking structure, would you invest in a 30-year bond to finance it?
That’s the question Bob Goldsmith, partner and co-chairman of redevelopment and land use for Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP, posed at the beginning of the Redevelopment Forum session entitled “The Future of Parking, Today.”
Downtowns across New Jersey are facing a unique set of challenges. While many towns are seeing a rise in the number of people who want to live in a walkable, mixed-use town center, they are also facing the challenges of keeping their downtowns vibrant and full of retail tenants when New Jerseyans increasingly do most of their shopping on laptops and not in stores.
Everyone in municipal circles is talking about affordable housing. More than 325 New Jersey municipalities have entered the judicial affordable housing process established by the Supreme Court in In Re Adoption of NJAC 5:97 (Mt. Laurel IV). The goal of these actions is to reach a judicial determination of each town’s affordable housing obligation.
