Real estate development community sounds off on stimulus bill

The Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit program, which was signed into law a year and a half ago, would be expanded to include office buildings located within a half-mile radius of a light rail station, as well as warehouse facilities adjacent to or connected by rail spur to freight rail. The program also would allow companies to sell their tax credits if their tax liability is not large enough to offset the credit for a particular year.

These changes would significantly broaden the pool of businesses that can take advantage of the program, Zangari said. “It’s going to be a game-changer,” he said. “This will get the attention of real estate site selectors for corporate America.”

The stimulus bill would also establish the Economic Redevelopment and Growth Grant, or ERGG, to replace the tax increment financing currently provided through Revenue Allocation Districts. The grants would spur redevelopment in certain designated areas of the state by allowing developers to pay for a large percentage of their upfront development costs for projects in those areas, Zangari said.

Additionally, the legislation will exempt nonresidential developers from paying a 2.5 percent affordable-housing fee for projects that obtain preliminary or final approval before July 1, 2010 — provided they secure building permits before July 1, 2011. For commercial developers, “this will come as a great relief, and will help to make pro-formas pencil out,” Zangari said.

The stimulus bill, however, does not do enough to assuage developers’ concerns about the state’s Council on Affordable Housing, or COAH, regulations, said Michael McGuinness, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties in New Brunswick.

Waiving the 2.5 percent fee is “a step in right direction, but we’d like to see some changes that we feel are essential.” Most significantly would be “de-linking” new commercial development from growth-share obligations in towns, he said; “without that, towns have far less of a reason to zone for and approve nonresidential or commercial development,” McGuinness said. Nonresidential developers currently are required to build one affordable housing unit for every 5,700 square feet of new office space or every 16,000 square feet of new warehouse space built, he said.

And the fee exemption may not necessarily be all that meaningful, he added.

“It’s extremely difficult to pull building permits in a 12-month timeframe, and not many projects are out there that are ready to get preliminary site plan approval,” he said. McGuinness, however, said he was cautiously optimistic that the bill would be refined and improved before the Legislature breaks for the summer.

The bill will now go to the full Assembly for a vote, and is expected to get Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s signature by early July, according to Zangari.