For Newark, Amazon Shortlist Affirms Changes in New Jersey's Biggest City
January 18 2018 - 6:15PM
Dow Jones News
By Kate King
NEWARK -- New Jersey's largest city landed on the shortlist for
Amazon.com Inc.'s second headquarters, a distinction local
officials said reflected its revitalization but may also be tied to
a $7 billion incentive package.
Mayor Ras Baraka said he believes Amazon took notice of the
city's proximity to an international airport and the East Coast's
busiest seaport as well as its robust fiber-optic network and large
pool of college students and other potential workers.
Newark "is not a bus stop, it is a destination and people are
beginning to see it as a destination," Mr. Baraka said
Thursday.
Newark, which has struggled economically since manufacturing
jobs began leaving the city after World War II, has attracted
investment from both real-estate developers and corporations in
recent years. But the city continues to struggle with poverty and
violent crime.
Just days before he left office, former Gov. Chris Christie, a
Republican, signed legislation offering up to $5 billion in tax
incentives over 20 years in exchange for Amazon creating as many as
50,000 new jobs over time.
Newark, a city of more than 280,000 in the state's northern
Essex County, has offered up to $2 billion in tax abatements and
wage-tax waivers, but Mr. Baraka said the incentives would come
with a condition that the company make a significant commitment to
hiring city residents.
"The win for us is to get Newark residents hired, to get them
trained, to get them employed, to raise our economy, to get people
walking and moving around our city, to increase our population," he
said. "All those things are benefits that we see."
Newark has about $3.1 billion of development projects in the
pipeline with about 1 million square feet of commercial space,
620,000 square feet of retail and 2.2 million square feet of
industrial space, according to the city.
Compared with New York City, Newark is a "value proposition"
said Jonathan Cortell, vice president of development at L+M
Development Partners Inc., a firm that is involved in a number of
Newark redevelopment projects. Downtown Newark has an abundant
supply of unique buildings from an older era that can be
redeveloped, he said.
Newark didn't talk with Amazon representatives during the
proposal process, but nearly 50 corporations and other groups
already located in the city, including Prudential Financial Inc.,
volunteered staff and expertise to help with the proposal, said
Aisha Glover, president and chief executive of the Newark Community
Economic Development Corp., a quasi-city agency that spearheaded
the proposal.
"I don't want to sound smug, but we're here because we expected
to be here, and we deserve to be here," Ms. Glover said about
Newark's spot on the shortlist. "We have the tech, talent,
infrastructure, diversity, location. We're on the map."
Keiko Morris contributed to this article.
Write to Kate King at Kate.King@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 18, 2018 18:00 ET (23:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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