More than 10,000 large parcels of land across New Jersey are contaminated and pose environmental dangers to our residents and communities. They present golden opportunities for remediation, redevelopment, employment and tax relief.
While Brad Pitt and others have recently been busy piggybacking off similar problems in New Orleans, we have been working in New Jersey and in other states to address this issue for more than a year. Together with top environmental companies, agencies in Trenton and banking and real estate entities, we are able to develop creative financing to clean up these tainted properties and “go green.” These projects address a critical challenge in our state budget. Once the land is cleaned up and developed, they create a tax role that can ease the burdens of dormant contaminated land. We are already working on projects in areas like Paterson, Camden and Jersey City.
It’s time for developers and business leaders to jump on the bandwagon we have already created and invest in cleaning up these thousands of pieces of land. Revitalizing them can also revitalize our economy.
Robert Chiafullo
president
FIRM Holdings
Shrewsbury