Caren Franzini has been the CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) for the past two decades, but she has resigned from that position and will be stepping down at the end of September. She discussed her departure with NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider and also talked about the American Dream project and Revel. She said she believes American Dream will become a good tourist destination for New Jersey and Revel will meet expectations in time.
Franzini said it’s time for new people to take over the EDA and move it in a new direction but that “things are going great.” When asked about her greatest success at the agency, she cited the impact the EDA has had on New Jersey communities throughout the state and interactions with the business community.
The American Dream project has come under fire by some and others have said it will be a great success. Franzini said she believes the project will be successful in the near future, becoming a tourist destination. “You have a development team that has decided New Jersey’s the place for them to be,” she said.
The Giants and Jets football teams have filed a lawsuit to stop progress on American Dream, but Franzini said she believes both sides will come to an agreement and the project will be completed. She said a main point of contention is parking, which is in short supply.
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“At the end of the day, these two entities have to come together and realize for them both to be successful, they both have to give and take like in any negotiation and I’m sure great minds will finally realize that and come to a happy medium,” she said. “They have to to make it work for both of them.”
Funding has been a problem for American Dream in the past, but Franzini said she believes the developers are close to getting the needed money to finish the project.
Standard & Poor’s downgraded Revel’s credit rating from B- to CCC, which isn’t good news for Atlantic City’s latest casino. Franzini is still confident, however, that Revel will become successful. “Revel all along said it was going to take them a year to meet their projections. And so with any new start-up business, a new start-up entity, it’s going to take some time,” she said. “We’re in a tough economy nationally and Revel’s feeling the effects of that, but I have confidence in the project, in the developer, in the city.”
Job numbers for New Jersey were disappointing for July, with the biggest job losses coming from manufacturing and construction. “I think what we’re seeing definitely is a slowdown in construction but we’re also seeing areas of activity,” Franzini said. “If you go into the city of Newark, you see several new projects under construction.”
Franzini said the state is taking steps to improve the economic climate further. “I think we’ve set a lot of things into play regarding incentive programs, regarding reduction of our corporate business tax, regarding the easing of regulations to make them make sense,” she said. “It’s just going to take some time to have a lot of those legislative changes take hold and have the business community have confidence again in New Jersey.”