We have already started planning Redevelopment Forum 2018! Please mark your calendars for Friday, March 9.
Interested in sponsoring? Download sponsorship information or contact Michele Glassburg, 609-393-0008 ext. 107.
Redevelopment Forum 2018 will be Friday, March 9, at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick. More information and a call for sessions will be available this fall.
Learn more about the Redevelopment Forum 2017 Agenda, Speakers and Sponsors.
The updated plan for Rowan Boulevard, which grew eightfold after research indicated a larger plan would work financially. Courtesy JGSC Group
At one of the breakout sessions at this year’s Redevelopment Forum, Joe Getz from the downtown economic-consulting organization JGSC Group gave a clinic on the importance of using good data to make decisions on downtown redevelopment projects. The familiar developer refrain “We’ve done this many times,” he cautioned, “is not data.”
There are lots of kinds of data besides demographic and Census data, he said, including interviews, surveys, and economic analysis. Such data tell us who will buy the housing we plan to build; who will shop in the stores; who will dine in the restaurants and what kind of dining they like. Census data doesn’t include any of those things, but they’re crucial to putting together redevelopment plans that will work.
Freedom Village, on the site of the former Apollo Dye factory in Paterson, provides housing for low-income seniors. Photo courtesy of Pennrose Properties.
“It’s the best of times; it’s the worst of times” is how moderator Tony Marchetta from the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency kicked off the affordable housing session at this year’s Redevelopment Forum.
It’s the best of times, he said, because courts are now starting to get specific about municipal obligations, and, at the federal level, there is a push to expand the Low Income Housing Tax Credit by 50 percent.
New Jersey Future’s 2017 Redevelopment Forum featured among its breakout sessions a two-part series on redefining suburbs to adapt to changing demographic realities. The morning session highlighted demographic and economic trends that are driving new demand for in-town living and “live-work-play” environments. The afternoon session then featured practitioners who have worked on projects of various types that had in common the goal of attracting new residents who are looking for a compact, walkable, mixed-use center.
Enjoy this select gallery of photos from Redevelopment Forum 2017, sponsored by Greenbaum Rowe Smith & Davis LLP and Kitchen & Associates, and then take a look at the full album over on our flickr site!