The main trade group for New Jersey's commercial real estate industry has unveiled a four-year plan that includes stepping up its advocacy to get "a fair playing field," according to the organization's CEO.
NAIOP New Jersey does work on behalf of real estate businesses that work with government officials and the public. Its new goals include strengthening its efforts to represent all real estate classes at both the state and local levels; to better respond to both positive and negative legislation and policies; and to improve the perception of the industry with legislators, local officials and journalists. The group also aims to increase its visibility.
"We're really trying to help you do business," Dan Kennedy, NAIOP NJ CEO, said during the organization's annual meeting in Short Hills, New Jersey, on Thursday.
In New Jersey, there has been public outcry over the development of warehouses and over real estate firms being allowed to make Payments in Lieu of Taxes, so-called PILOT programs, for their projects. For example, some residents view PILOTs as giveaways to developers, with controversy popping up over them in municipalities such as Parsippany.
Being proactive
"What we heard from our members in our organizational assessment is that they'd like NAIOP to be a little bit more aggressive with pushing back on these false narratives," Kennedy told CoStar News. "Not project by project, but kind of from a higher level. There's so many false narratives around PILOT agreements, which are essentially just a different way to pay your property taxes. It's not a public subsidy. There's a gap that isn't being filled to correct that perception, and I think that in the future that's an example of a gap we want to fill."
Real estate property owners and developers are just looking for a fair shake, according to Kennedy.
"So, I've chaired my local planning board," he said. "I spent a good part of my career in the public sector. I'm a licensed planner. I have a degree in city planning. So I understand that the public process is important, and we don't mind a fair process, developers. It's when the tables are turned and these narratives that are just completely false submarine good projects is when we have a problem. So we're not trying to dispose of the public engagement process. We're just trying to make sure that it's a fair playing field."
NAIOP's strategic objectives include identifying the trends and obstacles facing all types of commercial real estate — multifamily and mixed-use as well as industrial and office.
"We're going to diversify our priorities to make sure that we're representing all asset classes, and not just what we're classically known for, office and industrial," Kennedy said. "We are moving into, getting a better competency around mixed use and multifamily and some of these niche markets that ... are not as high of a priority as they could be."
Studio boom
TV-and-film production has become a booming business in the Garden State, one that's driving real estate development. For example, at its meeting, NAIOP held a panel discussion that included Moshe Gross, CEO of Reset Locations, a broker for entertainment production locations. Gross negotiated a deal to have the critically acclaimed Apple TV show "Severance" shoot scenes at Bell Works, a massive, redeveloped former research campus for Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey.
After New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy reinstated tax incentives for TV-and-movie production, several studio facilities are now coming to the state, including a large campus that streaming giant Netflix will be building at Fort Monmouth.
Matt Schlindwein, managing partner at East Brunswick, New Jersey-based Greek Real Estate Partners, took over as president of NAIOP at the group's meeting, which had about 250 attendees. He succeeds Mark Shearer, senior managing director at Rockefeller Group.