By Joshua Burd
Local officials in Aberdeen have unveiled new incentives to encourage new commercial development and improvements to existing buildings around the township’s Route 35 corridor.
The incentives, rolled out last week, include a tax exemption program for commercial property owners who expand or undertake major renovations at their buildings. Those who do so can receive a five-year exemption from property taxes for the assessed value of those upgrades.
“For example, the owner of a commercial building currently assessed at ($2 million) puts on an addition that adds $300,000 to the property’s assessed value,” Aberdeen Tax Assessor Scott Kineaby said. “For the first five years following completion of the project, the property’s taxes will continue to be based on the original ($2 million) assessment.”
The township council is rolling out the program under a state law that has allowed it to designate the Route 35 corridor as an “area in need of rehabilitation,” according to a news release from the municipality. The program applies to properties along Route 35 and on nearby roads in the town’s Cliffwood and Cliffwood Beach sections.
The designation also means that property owners who build new commercial, industrial, hotel or apartment projects in the area are eligible for phased payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs. Under the law, owners of such buildings will pay no local property taxes in the first year after completion of the project, but payments will begin to rise incrementally in the ensuing years.
For instance, 20 percent of the taxes will be due in the second year, 40 percent in year three, 60 percent in year four and 80 percent in year five, the news release said. Property owners will have to pay full taxes starting in the sixth year after completion.
Kineavy said property owners seeking the incentives must apply to the tax assessor, with all applications subject to additional review by the township council. Incentives can be denied if the property is not located within the designated geographic area, if property taxes are delinquent, if an improvement project does not conform to the ordinance’s standards or if the application is not submitted in timely fashion.
Denials can be appealed to the Monmouth County Board of Taxation or the Tax Court of New Jersey.
In a prepared statement, Aberdeen Mayor Fred Tagliarini said the timing was right for the township to take such action. He pointed to strong traffic counts along Route 35, easy access to two Garden State Parkway interchanges and a recently completed state project that raised the roadway in flood prone sections and improved two intersections.
“Our Council and professionals believed that this state-sanctioned program would incentivize owners of vacant or underutilized properties to construct new buildings or expand or renovate existing sites to better tap the potential of Aberdeen’s section of this busy car and truck corridor,” Tagliarini said. “And with 500 new units of housing now under construction at The Glassworks site just off the corridor, the timing could not be better for retail, personal services and professional businesses seeking to capitalize on these opportunities.”
The township council will soon unveil a second phase of the tax exemption program for homeowners in the Cliffwood and Cliffwood Beach sections, Tagliarini said.
