It’s the question business owners once asked when they considered relocating to the city of Newark. Today, we are being asked that question with less frequency and working to produce policies and initiatives that support the growth and sustainability of our city, but most importantly our residents.
Newark is the transportation hub of the New York metro, with a web of infrastructure that reaches the nation and world by sea, air, rail, and road. We check every box.
Newark is home to the second busiest port in the United States, while Newark Liberty International Airport serves 21.6 million travelers a year. There are 30 hotels within four miles of the airport, most with four or five-star ratings.
We have lightning-fast Wi-Fi, and a tech savvyworkforce through The New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers-Newark. Our corporate culture is robust and growing. Prudential, PSE&G, IDT, Panasonic, Audible, Broadridge Financial Solutions, and Mars Wrigley Confectionery call Newark home.
On Oct. 12, we hosted a “Newark Forward” conference in conjunction with Invest Newark our business development group—and the African- American Chamber of Commerce of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware to showcase the City as a premier business destination.
While we touted our proximity to global transportation, New York City, and the world’s largest media market, we also discussed our access to worldclass academics, scientists, and engineers of all types. Newark has always been a melting pot of culture, ideas, and innovation. Our history as a place of invention and industry is well documented, dating back from the tanneries of colonial times to the breweries of the last century to our current fiber optics network, one of the best in the world.
Newark is where Seth Boyden later perfected techniques for malleable iron; and John Latimer, an African American inventor who worked in one of Thomas Edison’s labs, created the phonograph and several of Edison’s telegraphic devices.
The beating heart of Newark’s industrial prowess has been the interconnection of businesses and services, all feeding an ecosystem of success.
We feel we have a perfect environment for a new generation of residents seeking a dynamic, urban community with businesses, goods, and services representing a full spectrum of global need and diversity. That’s part of what makes us stand out— but most important is that we bring a family type of support to our business.
Regina Hairston, the CEO of the African American Chamber of Commerce, said she came to our conference “to encourage everyone to bring their business to Newark and reap the benefits awaiting you.” Those benefits, she said, include Newark’s “nuts-and-bolts support of economic incentives, as well as decades-old experiential wisdom and futurelooking, outside-the-box innovation.”
We announced one of our many economic business incentives just last month with our Newark Retail Reactivation Initiative to bring retail, restaurants, and cultural centers to our community. With grants based on square footage of $35 or $50 per square foot, business owners can get up to $300,000 in grants for spaces between 1,000 square feet and 10,000 square feet. For buildings that exceed 10,000 square feet, grants can go as high as $650,000. The money can be used for repairs and renovations inside and outside.
This is part of our strategy to recapture and reignite the beat and pulse of all five wards of our city, not just downtown. As our businesses grow and expand, those opportunities will additionally and purposefully create opportunities for all Newark residents.
During our conference, we held a session called, “Why Newark?” However, at the conclusion of the session, the question became “Why Not Newark?” That is the question, and one for which we have exciting and innovative answers. Come see for yourselves at https://investnewark.org/financial-support/.
