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from many of the state’s leading
businesses and industry groups, as
Greek discussed during a recent
discussion with Real Estate NJ. Below
are excerpts from the interview, edited
for space and clarity.
REAL ESTATE NJ: Can you give us some
quick background on how Circulate
NJ started?
DAVID GREEK: The idea for this
originated from the development
community, I think because … we’re
often the ones testifying at planning
boards, which is often when we hear
a lot of the concerns and a lot of
the misinformation that gets spread
throughout the community during an
application process. And many of my
peers have been frustrated for a long
time that there has been increasingly
organized efforts on a grassroots level
to stop warehouse development in
certain areas.
And that is normal — people pushing
back against development is nothing
new. What’s really new is the level of
people participating and the type of
participation in opposing applications.
We have noticed that there are much
larger groups getting involved that
are actively spreading misinformation
on a lot of the applications, whether
that be the environmental impacts of
the project, degrading the owner of
the project to make them look like
they are doing something potentially
evil where they’re not and, generally,
just (putting forth) incorrect sets of
information on the projects or what
the developer is attempting to do.
RENJ: So part of the idea is to counter
that misinformation with campaigns
that are similarly organized and
centralized, as you describe it, and
to educate the public on the benefi ts
of these projects. Where do the other
stakeholders come in?
DG: When we started to really fl esh
that idea out, we reached out to
people outside of the development
community — specifi cally, trade
groups, tenants — really important
components of the industrial industry,
and we realized that they had many
of the same shared frustrations and
thought that this was something that
was needed. So we really broadened
the coalition from just a few real
estate developers to a much broader
scope to encompass all of the logistics
trades.
And we’re continuing to broaden that
scope. Certainly as we have started
™ 19
this campaign, awareness has spread
and we’ve received a lot of inquiries
from other developers, attorneys,
trade groups, truckers, laborers.
It’s really the whole gamut of those
impacted by industrial development.
RENJ: Understood, but it seems like
the skilled developers in this state
often manage to get their projects
done even when they’re dealing with
opposition from residents, abundant
regulations and other hurdles. Are you
saying it’s the scale and volume of the
misinformation that was really the
tipping point for you and your peers?
David Greek
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