On September 2, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) published a notice of special adoption of new rules and amendments to implement the provisions of the New Jersey Economic Recovery Act of 2020, establishing the New Jersey Aspire Program. On January 23, Governor Murphy signed S1323 into law, which revised various provisions of the Aspire Program. S1323 into law, which revised various provisions of the Aspire Program.  

The Aspire Program is a gap financing tax incentive program to encourage the development of commercial, mixed-use, and residential real estate projects in New Jersey by providing tax credits in an amount based on a percentage of the project’s costs. 

To demonstrate local support for the project, the developer must have a letter of support for the project from the chief executive of the municipality and must enter into a Community Benefits Agreement and also a Redevelopment Agreement with the project’s municipal governing body.  

The new rules proposed for readoption and the concurrently proposed new rule and amendments implementing the Aspire Program include the following:  

• Technical and grammatical changes such as the addition of “any compliance period” to the “eligibility period,” as appropriate; updates to cross-references to represent the proper codification of the chapter; addition of references to P.L. 2025, C.2; and other technical and grammatical changes that do not affect the substance of the chapter. 
• Eligibility criteria that sets forth eligibility criteria for a developer and co-applicant, if appliable. 
• Application submission requirements for each applicant, and co-applicant if applicable, with application requirements for special mission non-profit projects. 
• Establishment of fees required for the program depending on the type of project and amended to include special mission non-profit projects. 
• Financing Gap and Fiscal Impact Analysis reviewed by the NJEDA to ensure a net positive benefit to the state; proposes permitting projects with a five-year eligibility period that are required to show a net positive economic benefit to elect to have the net benefit evaluated for 10 years, subject to a five-year compliance period immediately following the eligibility period.
• Approval of completed application, tax credit amount. The NJEDA awards will be based on the order in which complete, qualifying applications are received/ The NJEDA may institute a competitive application process, upon notice, at its discretion. The maximum amount of tax credits available to an applicant, annually, will be equal to the total credit amount divided by the duration of eligibility period in years.  
• Reporting requirements and annual report. An approved developer that enters into an incentive award will submit an annual report with supporting documentation on the status and continued eligibility compliance of the approved project.  
• Reduction, forfeiture, and recapture of tax credits. Approved applicants and co-applicants, including special mission non-profit applicants, may have their tax credit reduced, forfeited in whole or in part, or recaptured for certain violations. 
• Transformative project eligibility requirements for redevelopment projects, commercial projects of special economic importance and certain residential projects. 
• Affirmative Action and Prevailing Wage apply to the redevelopment project including, but not limited to, construction contracts for certain work performed before the application. 

Written comments are accepted by the NJEDA until November 1. Questions on the new Aspire Program can be sent to aspire@njeda.gov. 

Contact: Sadayah Q. DuRant-Brown, Legislative Counsel, sdurantbrown@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x137.