NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ-Yes, there are deserts in New Jersey – food deserts, defined by the US Department of Agriculture as industrialized areas without options to purchase healthy food. And New Brunswick, it seems, is one.

But with WNC & Associates’ agreement to provide $10 million in New Market Tax Credit financing, Ferren Urban Renewal Associates, the $103 million development of the New Brunswick Wellness Plaza has taken another step forward.

The financing marks WNC’s first in New Jersey, says David Shafer, executive vice president of WNC, a CA-based investor in urban renewal and affordable housing projects. The Wellness Plaza, to be located next to the New Brunswick Train Station, will include: a 49,000-square-foot Fresh Grocer, the area’s only full-service supermarket; a 62,000-square-foot RWJ Fitness & Wellness Center, and a 1,275-space public parking facility. The project will bring more than 700 jobs to the city, a factor particularly important to WNC.

“The beautiful thing about it is that it’s a transportation hub,” Shafer tells GlobeSt.com. A covered walkway will link the Plaza and the train station, allowing the grocer to serve “the commuters who live in one of these food deserts, who can pick up groceries on the way home.”

The Robert Wood Johnson Fitness & Wellness Center will include state-of-the-art fitness equipment, an aquatic center, and dance and fitness studios. The facility also will offer free preventative health and wellness-related community events to local residents, including healthy cooking, diabetes management, obesity prevention, and parenting.

The NMTC program was designed to bring favorable financing to low-income communities that do not have readily available access to capital, Shafer explains. WNC acts as a middleman between the investor and developers, in this case Ferren Urban Renewal Associates LLC, a partnership of the nonprofit New Brunswick Development Corp., and Pennrose Properties LLC. NMTC allocations were funded entirely by Wells Fargo & Company.

The investor receives a credit against their income tax, and the development gets the loan. When the seven-year tax credit compliance period is completed, the borrower can in essence buy the loan and become its own lender.

Financing for the Wellness Plaza was arranged through WNC’s Community Development Enterprise (CDE), WNC National Community Development Advisors, LLC. WNC collaborated with three additional CDEs (CityScape Capital Group, Empowerment Reinvestment Fund, and Wells Fargo Community Development Enterprises) to provide NMTC allocations totaling $35 million for the project.

Job projections for the development include approximately 350 direct construction jobs and approximately 370 permanent jobs for New Brunswick. “When we went through the transaction, it hit a lot of the elements we were trying to look at,” Shafer says. “It turned out to be a very good project.”

WNC is on the lookout for other deals in New Jersey, Shafer adds. Solar farms were one option, but do not produce the permanent jobs that the firm prefers from its investments. “We are always open,” Shafer says. “We are talking with Pennrose about transactions.”

Instant Insights /

WNC Provides Tax Credits for New Brunswick Wellness Plaza

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