By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Gov. Chris Christie wants Amazon to build its next headquarters in New Jersey, with the state Chamber of Commerce saying it would “welcome” the addition.
But Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert, whose premier retail-shopping district, Palmer Square, is beset by a noticeable string of vacancies, does not. Instead, she criticized the governor for offering tax breaks worth up to $5 billion to attract the company, and said Monday that that money would be better directed to helping small businesses.
“I was frankly appalled when I saw that Chris Christie was trying to roll out the welcome mat for Amazon and offering tax breaks and other things for an entity like Amazon to come into New Jersey,” she said. “It’s like having one big company that is basically driving all the local merchants out of business and is probably the worst thing we can be doing.”
Amazon, based out of Seattle, has said it is looking to put its second headquarters in North America, in a more than $5 billion investment that would create “as many as fifty thousand high-paying jobs,” the company has said.
“In addition to Amazon’s direct hiring and investment, construction and ongoing operation of Amazon HQ2 is expected to create tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community,” the company said.
Cities around the country are vying to get Amazon to pick them, but Mayor Lempert said Princeton did not submit a proposal to the company.
“I don’t want to live in a community where, instead of being able to go downtown, you’d have a faceless factory,” said Mayor Lempert, who insists she is not clinging to an old notion of mom and pop stores. “I’m just saying that if we turn our central marketplace into a faceless factory delivering us stuff by drones, it’s like Princeton ceases to become Princeton too. We lose the heart of our town.”
This week, the president of the state Chamber of Commerce, Tom Bracken, issued a statement saying his organization would “welcome” Amazon’s new headquarters to New Jersey.
“We would welcome with equal enthusiasm the many thousands of jobs it would create and the positive economic impact it would have on our state’s economy,” he said. “Based on Amazon’s stated plans and growth projections, the return on these tax incentives could be significant.”
But in words similar to Mayor Lempert’s, he said that if Amazon does not come, the state should look to aid local businesses.
“If the incentive package does not entice Amazon to select New Jersey, the NJ Chamber strongly urges state government leaders to distribute these same tax incentives to the legion of entrepreneurial, small and medium sized companies already situated in New Jersey and loyally doing business here,” he said. “We feel that the economic impact of providing these incentives would equal, if not exceed, the impact of a potential new Amazon location. We must not forget that these companies are the backbone of New Jersey’s economy and they create many of the new jobs here.”
As shoppers turn to making purchases on the Internet, that has implications for retail stores.
Palmer Square, home to high-end stores and restaurants, has been stung with a string of vacancies; one small stretch of Hulfish Street, starting at Witherspoon Street, is completely empty.
“We recognize that the vacancy on Palmer Square is not typical for our center and is upsetting to residents and the entire downtown community,” said Lori Rabon, vice president of Palmer Square Management, in a statement this week.
“Unfortunately,” she continued, “we had tenants leave in spring of 2016 for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which was the difficult environment faced by all retailers today. We are working diligently to fill the vacancies with tenants who will add to the vitality of Palmer Square and downtown Princeton. Our new store, Nic + Zoe will be opening in two weeks and we hope everyone will give them a warm Princeton welcome.”
“We do talk with Palmer Square, and they know that we’ve offered whatever the municipality can do for assistance,” Mayor Lempert said. “Part of the issue is that there are national trends that we’re not immune to.”
For her part, Mayor Lempert offered the town can make its “regulatory” process “easier in terms of not putting up roadblocks that don’t need to be there.”
She said the town is in the midst of a parking study focused on economic development.
“We’ve also talked about how can the town act as a facilitator, catalyst, for helping with promoting the town or other things like that,” she said.
Yet while towns around the country bend over backward to recruit Amazon, Mayor Lempert won’t be one of them — proudly so.
“So we need to think about what the future looks like,” she said. “And I hope it doesn’t look like an Amazon factory.”
