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Developers hope the new mayor can speed up projects that now are bogged downReal estate developers are eagerly waiting to see how Newark Mayor-elect Cory Booker will deal with the more than $1 billion of office and residential projects that have been proposed for the state’s largest city. The result will help determine the extent to which the so-called Newark renaissance can shift into high gear.

Booker last week vowed to take a fresh look at every project on the board once he assumes office on July 1. These include the controversial $210 million ice hockey arena for the New Jersey Devils that has been a pet project of outgoing mayor Sharpe James and that Booker has criticized as “not the wisest use of tax dollars.”

More than 40 projects are currently in planning stages around the city. The major ones range from a $400 million waterfront development anchored by the law firm McCarter & English to a $50 million venture to turn a former Westinghouse building near Newark Penn Station into a residential and retail complex (see box).

Many proposals have bogged down while awaiting financing, permits and approval of tax incentives. But real estate insiders hope the logjam will break under the hard-charging Booker, 37, a Rhodes Scholar and Stanford University and Yale Law School graduate.

“He’s going to have the city’s skyline teeming with construction cranes,” says Ted Zangari, partner and real estate attorney with the Newark law firm Sills Cummis. “He should emulate the success of Bret Schundler when he was mayor of Jersey City and dip into the financial-services industries in New York City.”

Among the executives wanting projects to move ahead are Drew Berry, chairman of McCarter & English, the state’s largest law firm. The $400 million waterfront project envisioned as the firm’s new home will depend on receipt of tax incentives.

“It will be inconsistent with [Booker’s] position if major economic-development initiatives in the city were made more difficult,” says Berry. But in the event of delays, he plans a short-term extension of the McCarter & English lease at Four Gateway Center when the current term expires in 2008.

Also seeking incentives is Cogswell Realty of New York City, which plans an $85 million, 300-unit market-rate apartment complex on an eight-block stretch of downtown Newark that houses the former Hahne’s department store and Griffith buildings. Cogswell and partners Lehman Bros. and The Berger Organization acquired the site three years ago after a nonprofit’s plans to build the apartments collapsed due to lack of financing.

Booker hasn’t aired his views on property tax abatements, except to say that he plans to review all the city’s economic incentives. Some experts say the availability of prime building sites may provide sufficient reason to start construction. “Low-hanging fruit within the city may itself be enticing enough and not require incentives to jump-start development,” says Zangari.

Tax incentives aside, many developers are eager to learn who will be the city’s next business administrator, a powerful position that since 2002 has been held by Richard Monteilh, a strong supporter of the Devils arena. The administrator plays a pivotal role in granting permits and approving projects.

Booker indicated last week that he would keep his options open with regard to Monteilh. “I have not had a chance to fully evaluate his work,” says Booker. ”There have been some major policy decisions that have been wrong, but you cannot blame the B.A. for that.”

Developers want to use Booker’s arrival to revive the Newark Real Estate Board, an industry group that was formed in 2001 to recommend projects to city leaders, but has since fallen into disuse. “It’s going to be neutral and not be Cory Booker’s cheerleader,” says Zangari, who is writing a position paper on Newark real estate that he plans to give to Booker.

Developers hope the new mayor can improve the city’s image. Among them is Bob Martie, senior vice president of Bedminster’s Advance Realty, whose Newark properties include One Gateway Center, a 370,000-sq.-ft. downtown office building.

“I have had the opportunity to bring CEOs of major companies to Gateway, only for them to shy away and go somewhere else,” says Martie. “Part of it was the stigma of Newark—and it’s not just the crime, but also the perception of politics. [Newark] was a difficult place to do business from a political standpoint.”

Top Proposed Newark Projects

Matrix Development plans a $400 million mixed-use waterfront complex featuring a 14-story office tower with law firm McCarter & English as prime tenant. Included will be 500 residential units in four towers plus retail space, parking for 1,100 cars and a proposed 150-room hotel.

The Berger Organization envisions the $150 million conversion of a three-story motel on a four-acre downtown site into residential units or 200,000 sq. ft. of commercial space.

The former Gale Co. (now part of Mack-Cali Realty) plans a $100 million office venture at One Newark Center on Raymond Boulevard. Included are 420,000 sq. ft. of the 600,000-sq.-ft. building, a 1,000-car parking garage and land for another 500,000 sq. ft. of office space.

Cogswell Realty and partners Lehman Bros. and Berger want to build 300 market-rate apartments on an eight-block downtown site that currently includes the Hahne’s and Griffith buildings.

Gale and partner U.S. Realty plan a $50 million project to turn the Westinghouse building near Newark Penn Station into 100,000 sq. ft. of retail space and some 600 market-rate residential units.

Edison Properties and Rockefeller Group Development want to build a 350,000-sq.-ft. office tower at 50 Commercial Street near Newark Penn Station.

— Shankar P.

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