TRENTON, NJ—The New Jersey State Business Action Center is running interference with the state's bureaucracy for developers, to facilitate redevelopment projects that are transforming former corporate campuses across New Jersey, NJ BAC's executive director, Lauren Moore, tells GlobeSt.com exclusively.

The center has played an integral role in the successful start of redevelopment projects involving several office campuses throughout New Jersey, including the former Sanofi Aventis campus in Bridgewater, the Bell Labs property in Holmdel, and others owned by Verizon and Alcatel-Lucent. The Center helped redevelop an Alcatel-Lucent site for Bayer Healthcare.

"What we learned there was that it is very important to engage the municipality on what the opportunities are to redevelop the site, how to work on the revisions to land use and master plans, how to work on public transportation to get workers there, and we put together an inventory of vacant corporate campuses across New Jersey," says Moore.

Armed with that high-level inventory—and case-studies describing the successful redevelopment of several campuses—Moore and Gerard Scharfenburger, director of the state's Office for Planning Advocacy, developed a road show targeting towns where other vacant corporate sites remained underused.

"We mapped out all of the properties that fit the criteria, and we set up four regional meetings throughout the state," says Scharfenburger. "Not every corporate campus is going to have a single entity come in and use it the way it was previously, so we had to get across to the municipalities that they would have to change their thinking to repurpose these properties successfully."

Large corporate office campuses were frequently the largest taxpayers in a locality, so the closures caused a huge hit to local tax revenues and municipal budgets, Scharfenburger says.

"New Jersey is unique because we are a home rule state," Moore says. "Jurisdiction falls with the local municipality, not at the county level like in other states."

As a result, developers have to persuade local municipal officials of the wisdom of their approach, rather than dealing with county or state officials for approvals.

Bell Works, Somerset Development's repurposing of the two million square foot Bell Labs site, took years to get the blessing of local officials, who needed persuasion to relax the site's single-tenant, research facility zoning that would have prevented use of the site for multiple companies.

"That is one of our success stories," says Moore. "Municipalities think they're just going to get another single tenant in there, but the world has changed and we want to make sure that they see the opportunities with an open mind. We want to see this real estate stock become modern. It's antiquated and it's time for more than a facelift for this real estate stock to come into the 21^st Century. We need to bring our real estate product up to modern standards, and the municipalities have to be a part of the conversation."

You can hear an extended version of the conversation with NJ BAC director Moore and Planning Advocacy director Scharfenburger in the audio player below.

The NJ BAC operates under the Lt. Governor's office and describes itself as the "customer service front-end of the business development pipeline," says Moore. "We are typically the first point of contact with the business community for both business retention and attraction projects."

NJ BAC uses "an account management system" in its interaction with a company's senior executives to explain the services, programs, resources and business practices it can marshal to help with business development, and then act as an intermediary between a company and various state agencies that might need to provide input on a project, such as the Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Transportation, or Department of Community Affairs, Moore says.

NJ BAC also is providing a wide range of support services to small and mid-sized New Jersey businesses that help them compete in an increasingly globalized marketplace, Moore says. The Center recently received a $498,000 State Trade and Export Promotion grant from the US Small Business Administration to help NJ businesses gain access to foreign markets. The grant is an 81 percent increase from last year, meaning more funds are available for qualifying businesses.   

Now in its third year, the NJ STEP program has helped businesses like Trenton-based LED lighting manufacturer Tektite Industries travel to international trade shows in France and London. Participation in these shows allowed Tektite to secure purchase orders with companies based in the United Kingdom and Kenya.

Another success story is Adsorptech, which makes oxygen production equipment. Through STEP, the Middlesex, NJ-based manufacturer received grant support to travel to Germany to participate in the Gold Key Matching Service offered by United States Commercial Services. Ultimately, Adsorptech secured its first international exporting deal with the SOL Group, based in Italy. 

"Without the top-notch support of the Business Action Center and access to the NJ STEP grant program, we would not have had access to the resources needed to accelerate our growth," says Jim Flaherty, president and CEO, Adsorptech. "We will apply for a 2016 STEP grant so we can participate in Hannover Messe, an international trade show in Germany."  

To date, STEP grants have helped nearly 70 New Jersey companies sell goods and services in the global marketplace. Companies that have received past STEP grants have reported nearly $4.5 million in export sales for a return of investment of 22.2 percent.