Chemical company moving to Camden with help from $139 million in tax breaks
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority on Friday approved $139 million in tax incentives for a West Berlin chemical-manufacturing company to move to Camden.
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority on Friday approved $139 million in tax incentives for a West Berlin chemical-manufacturing company to move to Camden.
ResinTech Inc., which makes chemicals that are used in water and wastewater treatment, will relocate its corporate headquarters and build two manufacturing plants near Federal Street and River Road in East Camden. The company will bring 265 existing jobs to the city and hire for 55 new positions.
ResinTech CEO Jeffrey Gottlieb said he hoped the company will add additional jobs in years to come, that some jobs will be manufacturing positions, and the company will aim to hire locally. The company already employs a number of Camden residents, he said.
"We are actually going to be able to offer the types of jobs that Camden needs," he said. "I believe that we are going to do good things in the city."
ResinTech was founded in 1986 by Gottlieb's father, who started it in the garage of the family's Cherry Hill home with a small business loan. It now operates a 75,000-square-foot warehouse and offices on Cooper Road, as well as facilities in a handful of states around the country.
With the move to Camden, the company will consolidate employees from out-of-state locations into New Jersey, Gottlieb said. The new plant will allow ResinTech to do certain manufacturing procedures stateside, instead of outsourcing them to overseas companies. The plan for the 385,000 square-foot complex includes $8 million committed to solar energy.
The EDA, which approved the company's application at its regular meeting in Trenton, authorized the incentives through the Grow New Jersey program, which rewards employers that invest in struggling cities as part of the 2013 Economic Opportunity Act. U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, a South Jersey Democrat, championed the law as a state senator, saying the incentives were needed to attract employers to the city and that they would bolster the local economy.
Critics, however, say the program simply relocates existing jobs at a high cost to taxpayers. Many of the corporations moving to Camden are expected to offer few jobs for Camden residents, and will redeem millions in tax credits in exchange for moving a few miles.
Since the passage of the law, the EDA has approved more than $1 billion in tax incentives to companies that pledge to move to Camden, including $260 million in tax breaks to Holtec International for the company to move from Marlton; $164 million for the American Water Works Co. to move from Voorhees; and $118 million for Subaru of America to move from Cherry Hill.
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