Firm wins $253 million break for Camden HQ

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority on Thursday approved $253 million in tax incentives for a company to build a sprawling metal recycling complex in Camden's mostly industrial Waterfront South district.

The project will allow EMR Eastern, which owns the city's Camden Iron & Metal, to build a 700,000-square-foot campus on a six-block area near where the company already operates. The seven buildings to be constructed will include an advanced metals recovery facility and the company headquarters, currently in Bellmawr. The project will be completed by September 2018, according to the proposal.

It is the second-largest such project to be approved for Camden since the Grow New Jersey program was expanded in 2013 as a way of attracting business to impoverished cities such as Camden. The energy company Holtec International was approved to receive $260 million in tax credits last year in order for the company to move from Marlton.

With Thursday's decision at the EDA's meeting in Trenton, the authority has approved more than $1 billion in tax credits for Camden projects under its Grow New Jersey program. The credits, spread over 10 years, are conditional on the companies' creating or saving a certain number of jobs in the city and remaining in Camden for at least 15 years.

U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, a South Jersey Democrat, championed the law as a state senator, saying the use of tax incentives would lure employers to Camden. Critics say the program has mostly served to relocate jobs from elsewhere in the state.

The New Jersey Policy Perspective, a liberal-leaning think tank based in Trenton, has repeatedly criticized the subsidies. In May the group published a report warning that although the tax credits awarded to companies through the Grow New Jersey program are spread out over 35 years, the businesses could leave Camden after 15 years without having to pay back anything - at a cost of $97 million to taxpayers.

"New Jersey's political leaders continue to hand out goodies without paying for them, and despite the fact that these special tax deals don't grow the state's economy or create good jobs," Gordon MacInnes, president of the think tank, said Thursday. "We are years into this surge in tax subsidies of dubious value, yet we have nothing to show for it: Our economy is still limping along, and as long as we continue down this path, we'll never restore New Jersey to the economic powerhouse it once was."

The defense contractor Lockheed Martin has received $107 million and Subaru has received $118 million, each to move from elsewhere in South Jersey. The 76ers received $82 million in credits to build a training facility on the waterfront, and Cooper University Hospital was awarded $40 million in incentives to move about 350 office jobs from Cherry Hill and Mount Laurel.

Several companies have ties to Norcross' brother George E. Norcross III, a powerful New Jersey Democrat who is head of Cooper's board of trustees and sits on Holtec's board.

Companies that receive the tax credits will often end up paying far less in property taxes than at their prior locations, because of abatements available under the law. In some cases, the value of the credits approved actually exceeds the projected cost of the proposed project, and companies can sell the credits on the secondary market.

Founded in 1929, Camden Iron & Metal has employed generations of city residents, officials said Thursday. The new EMR campus will move 71 jobs from the Bellmawr headquarters to the Camden location, which already employs about 200 people, according to the company's proposal. An additional 27 jobs will move to Camden from elsewhere in the state.

Representatives did not respond to numerous requests for comment. In an email, Joseph Balzano Jr., president of EMR, wrote: "We are happy to call Camden home and excited about the potential for growth. . . . Incentives offered by the NJEDA made the project much more feasible and appealing. Ultimately, the incentives helped us keep our business and our employees in Camden."

In its application to the EDA, the company said it had considered moving 156 jobs to New Orleans, where the company has a facility.

Camden Iron & Metal previously tried to expand in Pennsylvania. The company has long operated a South Philadelphia scrap yard and planned to consolidate operations nearby, but faced community resistance due to noise complaints stemming from the scrap yard.

In 2012, then-Gov. Tom Corbett's administration rescinded $31 million in state money that had been pledged by former Gov. Ed Rendell for the company to build a pier on the Delaware River, and the company announced it would refocus its efforts on consolidating in Camden.

City officials said Thursday that the company has spent millions on renovations to its plant and that the city has partnered with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development to train residents for construction jobs and other employment opportunities that may be created by the projects.