New Jersey Aspire Program Application

Welcome: Aspire Application

You have reached the full application page for the NJ Aspire Program, a place-based economic development program created under the Economic Recovery Act (ERA) of 2020.

The NJ Aspire Program supports mixed-use, transit-oriented development by providing tax credits to commercial and residential real estate development projects that have financing gaps.

The amount of tax credits a project is eligible to receive is a percentage of the project’s eligible costs, subject to a cap that is determined by the project’s location, other financing available, and other aspects of the project.

To be eligible for Aspire Program tax credits, a project must be located in an eligible incentive location, which may include: Planning Area 1, Aviation District, Port District, or Planning Area 2 or other Designated Center that is within a half mile of a rail transit station or a high frequency bus stop. Film production projects may be located anywhere in the state. Additionally, any project located in an area designated as a Brownfield Site pursuant to the Brownfield and Contaminated Site Remediation Act, N.J.S.A. 58:10B-1 et seq.; and an comprising an area of not less than 100 acres for which a licensed site remediation professional has certified environmental remediation costs in accordance with the Site Remediation Reform Act, N.J.S.A. 58:10C-1 et seq., in an amount not less than $10,000,000, and provided that any portion of such area is located in an area that otherwise qualifies as an incentive area, shall be considered to be located in an incentive area.  

Projects must also meet minimum size and cost thresholds. Commercial projects must include at least 25,000 square feet of retail or commercial space in a government restricted municipality or 50,000 square feet of retail or commercial space in any other location, with limited exceptions for certain health care service centers of not less than 10,000 square feet. Residential projects must have eligible project costs totaling $5 million to $17.5 million depending on location.

Projects that meet certain parameters can qualify as “transformative projects” and receive tax credits above and beyond the caps that are established for standard projects. Transformative projects must have eligible costs of at least $150 million and be at least 200,000 square feet when located in a government restricted municipality, 250,000 square feet for film studio projects, 300,000 square feet when located in an enhanced area, and 500,000 square feet for any other projector up to 250,000 square feet for film studio projects. Transformative commercial projects must also demonstrate special economic importance to New Jersey and all transformative projects must leverage New Jersey’s mass transit assets, higher education assets, and other economic development assets to attract or retain employers and skilled workers. Transformative residential projects must satisfy minimum unit requirements depending upon where the project is located and if it is a mixed-use residential transformative project.

“Developer” or “applicant” means a person who enters or proposes to enter into an incentive award agreement pursuant to the provisions of section 60 of P.L. 2020, c. 156 (N.J.S.A. 34:1B-328), including, but not limited to, a lender that completes a redevelopment project, operates a redevelopment project, or completes and operates a redevelopment project. This is commonly a single purpose entity that will own the discrete real estate associated with the project.

Separately, “Lead Development Entity” means the entity that is responsible for overseeing the redevelopment project and is relied upon by the Authority to demonstrate operational capability, expertise, and experience to complete the project. The Authority shall determine which entity is the lead development entity by considering the role an entity has in the coordination of activities related to the redevelopment project, including, but not limited to, project design, project financing, permitting and local approvals, construction oversight and contracting, and property management. The application will allow you to propose a lead development entity and provided all the needed application materials for the proposed entity.  

The full application requires detailed information and supporting documentation about your company, affiliates, and the proposed project for which you are applying for tax credits. Please be advised that the application fee is non-refundable.

The application is broken down into 33 sections. You will not be able to proceed further into the application without completing all required fields and uploads within the current section. Progress on the application can be saved as you complete each section. At all times, you will be able to go back to sections that you have already completed.

This full application will take several hours to complete. Please read the prompts to questions carefully and provide professionally written responses that address all details requested in the questions in the suggested length of text. Applications submitted with placeholder documents and/or acknowledgements that the requested materials will be provided separately will not be deemed complete and you are advised against submitting applications without all required documentation.

It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you download a copy of the example application and collect written responses and required documents prior to filling them in on this online form.

It is also HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to use file naming conventions that facilitate rapid application completeness review.

Uploaded file names should:
       -Be identifiably connected to the project.
       -Accurately describe file contents and application elements
       -Denote date modified or file version number.

In the event of any questions, please contact an Aspire team member at Aspire@njeda.gov