Thursday, September 18 - Bringing More Opportunities to Newark
Every few weeks, my staff and I plan a day that is almost exclusively focused on bringing opportunity to Newark — Thursday was such a day.
It started early morning in a meeting in New York City with representatives of about 20 different foundations — it was a great opportunity as only a handful of them have been involved in Newark before but all of them had a keen interest in what we are doing in the City and, I believe, a desire to be part of our progress.
The foundations ranged from corporate foundations to private family foundations. I shared our three key priorities (public safety, youth and family empowerment and massively expanding economic opportunities for our residents) and talked about our efforts to reform government from customer service (our non-emergency response line) to reforming corruption (including the creation of the Office of Inspector General). I was so encouraged by the response and believe that we will build new partnerships and embolden those that exist. I was also impressed with the dedication of the individuals representing the foundations - incredibly knowledgeable and very passionate.
After that meeting, things really took off –
I met with a number of editorial boards from The Financial Times to Bloomberg News (Wall Street Journal canceled because of the financial crisis) – and gave some interviews as well. Our goal here is to work with those financial outlets that speak to businesses leaders, real estate brokers and others who make decisions on corporate locations (and relocations).
Newark has so many competitive advantages – they are magnified now in this economy. Our biggest advantages are cost and location — we are the lowest cost location in the region, and so accessible. A company leasing 100,000 square feet of class A space in Newark can save $40 to $70 million over a 10-year period. Further, with the greatest transportation infrastructure on the East coast, the ability to move goods and people is superior to any other location. We talked very bluntly about this and the many other things that were happening in Newark – dramatic and record-breaking violent crime reduction, the strength of our workforce, and examples of other companies that are beginning to flow to Newark bringing significant investment and hundreds of jobs (Standard Chartered Bank, law firms like Genova Burns, AMB Warehousing , audible.com, Mimeo, All Hip Hop.com and many others).
During the day, Stefan Pryor, my Deputy Mayor of Economic Development, Joe Richie, Director of Brick City Development Corporation (Newark’s new economic development corporation) and I would jump on the phone and call companies with which we are negotiating to relocate to Newark. I’m pretty excited about a number of the deals that are getting closer to the finish line.
All in all, our business attraction strategies are vast and involve everything from proactively calling businesses whose leases are expiring in expensive markets to advertising in business publications. But days like this are incredibly valuable – speaking directly to companies and to the key business publications they read.
My night ended with my radio show with Dr. Cliff Janey and a speech at an event held at the NJPAC by All Hip Hop.com, one of the new exciting companies coming to Newark. You can download any of my monthly radio shows from WBGO’s website. And, please visit All Hip Hop.com — they are truly an exciting company soon to be joining Newark’s success story.
September 24th, 2008 at 2:20 am
The opportunities should be brought to Newark, as our mayor and his economic development team have been tried very hardly. However, the opportunities most likely will be created here. For instance, Queens had the largest share of New York City job growth in the last ten years. (NY Daily News, Sept. 8, 2008) It did not happen accidentally. Baruch College will host an Immigrant Entrepreneurs Conference on Nov. 18, 2008 to discuss the Queens’ story. Newark has had some significant population gains in the past ten years. It is not an accident either. With the population growth, the city will hopefully have a significant gain in entrepreneurship. It might not be the most “sexy” experience like bringing the city a British bank, which hires nobody from the city. However, it has worked well in Queens.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:17 am
As an alumnus of Rutgers-Newark (2003) I find this article particularly interesting. I remember clearly the days I would walk straight to the parking lot and wish I felt safer in the city to actually go out after class. Once NJPAC was built I took the opportunity to explore more of the city; no longer was Robeson Center, Bleeker St and University Ave my comfort zones. There are many great eateries in the city that are so underrated!! I look forward to the economic growth of the city and I’m confident in Cory Booker. I think he’s going all the way with this. Good for you Cory, this Bergen County resident is on board with you!