SECAUCUS – In a strongly-worded letter sent today to Gov. Christopher Christie, Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli blasted a decision made Tuesday by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority to approve more than $100 million in tax incentives if Secaucus-based Panasonic moves to Newark.
Panasonic currently leases 1 million square feet of space at 1 Meadowlands Parkway from Hart Mountain Industries. The location includes 300,000 square feet of office space, plus 700,000 square feet if warehouse space, and serves as Panasonic’s U.S. corporate headquarters.
But after 34 years in town Panasonic is contemplating a change of scenery and considering a move to Newark. The company is also weighing sites out of state, including a possible site in New York, according to a source with the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
To keep the multi-billion-dollar company, and its 800-plus jobs, in the Garden State, the EDA suggested Panasonic apply for New Jersey’s Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit. The Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit Program gives tax credits to certain companies that employ at least 250 full-time workers and build or rent office space in or near nine designated urban transit communities. The law specifically identifies those nine urban transit hubs as Jersey City, Atlantic City, Elizabeth, Paterson, Camden, Trenton, New Brunswick, East Orange, and Newark.
To qualify for the tax credit, a company must make an investment of at least $75 million in its new city. The tax credit equals 10 percent of the company’s real estate investment.
The EDA recently approved Panasonic’s application, notifying the company that it could receive as much as $102.4 million in tax breaks and other incentives if it moved to Newark.
As a town not included in the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit Program, this strikes Mayor Gonnelli as unfair.
In a letter sent to Gov. Christie he wrote: “I continue to support and endorse New Jersey’s comprehensive economic development program, as it is well designed to create new jobs and to maintain existing employment opportunities.However, I object to these programs being used for the benefit of one New Jersey municipality at the expense of another and at taxpayer cost. Such use defeats the very purpose of these programs. They are funded by all New Jersey taxpayers and are intended to benefit the whole state, not to pit one municipality against another.”
Gonnelli is scheduled to meet with the EDA’s chief executive officer next Thursday.
Working with Hartz, Panasonic’s landlord, the mayor still hopes to make a counter offer to keep the company in Secaucus. – E. Assata Wright
Gonnelli to Gov.: $100M Panasonic bait not good
