Economic Recovery Board for Camden

Funding Allocations

The Economic Recovery Board (ERB) established under this Act shall oversee the following funds from the $175 million from bond proceeds authorized by the Act and from other funding sources. These funds shall be disbursed at the direction of the ERB and upon the recommendation of the chief operating officer:

Residential Neighborhood Improvement Fund: $35 million to make grants, matching grants or loans, to support water and sewer improvements not funded by the county, to support the removal of litter and clean community activities, the development of tot-lots, community gardens, landscape amenities, small scale demolitions, streetscape improvements, property acquisition, housing, and restoration in neighborhoods outside of the central business district.

Demolition and Redevelopment Financing Fund: $43 million to provide grants, matching grants or loans to support neighborhood rehabilitation, land acquisition, brownfields remediation, demolition and redevelopment.

Downtown Revitalization and Recovery Fund: $45.8 million to make grants, matching grants or loans to support streetscape improvements, facade restoration, street signage improvements, street resurfacing, demolition and restoration of commercial structures, property acquisition, and redevelopment projects, brownfields remediation in order to foster redevelopment, industrial development port redevelopment and the development of entertainment and cultural facilities such as aquariums and community schools for the arts.

$25 million out of this fund shall be used to make grants, matching grants or loans to support the expansion and upgrade of an aquarium by a private developer. Moneys from the fund shall be made available on a matching basis, with three dollars of State money to be made available for every dollar raised by a private developer.

Higher Education and Regional Health Care Development Fund: $47.7 million to provide grants to non-profit educational institutions and regional health care facilities.
I. Higher Education

One-to-one matching grants to be provided to non-profit educational institutions to encourage the development of student housing, retail facilities and commercial enterprises in the central business district

Any facility constructed using bond proceeds shall be located within the central business district of the qualified municipality and shall be co-located with other university buildings.

With respect to Rowan University, these funds shall be made available on the condition that the university shall offer at least two full four-year programs, thereby allowing students to complete an entire course of study on the campus housed in the central business district.

The bond proceeds shall be allocated as follows:

(1) $11 million to Rutgers, the State University;
(2) $5.1 million to Rowan University;
(3) $9 million to the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey; and
(4) $3.5 million to Camden County College.

II. Regional Health Care

The matching grants shall be provided to regional health care facilities situated within Camden to allow for facility expansion. Each health care facility shall be required to raise one dollar for every three dollars provided by the State. The bond proceeds shall be allocated as follows:

(1) $4.5 million to Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center;
(2) $13.35 million to Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center (provided, that no funds are used to establish or expand family practice facilities. Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center may make available a portion of these funds to a federally-qualified health center operating in the City of Camden);
(3) $1 million to Virtua Hospital to establish an in-patient drug treatment facility; and
(4) $250,000 to Partners in Health to further community outreach efforts in under served communities.

Economic Recovery Planning Fund: $3.5 million to cover planning and administrative costs incurred in preparing the strategic revitalization plan, the capital improvement and infrastructure plan and any other plans that are required to be prepared under the Act.
*In regards to each of the five Funds outlined above:
Notwithstanding this division of bond funds, up to 20% of the total amount deposited into these funds may be reallocated among these funds and sub-accounts thereof, with the approval of the EDA executive director and the COO to serve the economic revitalization goals which the Act seeks to promote.

Qualified Municipality Economic Opportunity Fund: $1.5 million from the General Fund to the Department of Labor. Funds shall be used, in coordination with the job training provisions of the State's school construction program, to create employment and entrepreneurial opportunities through the completion of projects in the central business district, entrepreneurial training, and grants and loans to small business development in residential neighborhoods, and loans for housing development.

Copyright © 2012 New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA)
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Trenton, NJ 08625-0990
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