successful programs sponsored by the organization. A conclusion will address the likely direction of the NJEDA in future.
The NJEDA has been quite successful throughout the two and a half decades of its existence. Over the past twenty-five years it boasts a strong record of performance where the number of jobs created, total investments stimulated and other criteria are concerned. The following table shows some of the measures of this high level of performance that speaks well of the efforts of the NJEDA:
Permanent: 161,100 Construction: 192,560
Total Investments Stimulated: $18.67 Billion
Included in the above statistics have been a number of successful individual projects assisted by the NJEDA. One of the most successful of its programs was the office renovations ordered in downtown Camden. This effort demonstrates how the NJEDA not only works to create employment opportunities, but also how its goals include bolstering the economic base of local governments in an effort to increase development and the standard of living. The NJEDA approved loans at a 5% interest rate for the project and helped finance the half a million dollars needed for the project which is going to create 40 new jobs and was organized in cooperation with the Latin American Economic Development Association, “The funding came from the EDA’s Fund for Community Economic Development, an economic development initiative that seeks to expand investments in urban areas by channeling funds to local community economic development organizations” (NJEDA 1).
The NJEDA’s success with Delta Plastics Corp. in Newark demonstrates how the organization also achieves its goals by providing assistance to individual companies. Delta Plastics Corp. is a manufacturing company that originated in 1985 with one plant, basically an empty building. The NJEDA helped provide bond financing in the mid-1980s to get the company off to a sound start. However, ...