Page 30 - RE-NJ

28 OCTOBER 2025
ON THE HORIZON
NAIOP New Jersey is future-focused (at a pivotal time),
with strategic plan in place and a governor’s race looming
I f New Jersey’s commercial real
estate industry is at a tipping point,
as Dan Kennedy feels it may be, he
says it’s evident by what’s happening
in other parts of the country.
That’s where many of the state’s core
developers have increasingly focused
their investments, the NAIOP New
Jersey CEO said, seemingly at the
expense of new projects on their home
turf.
“They’re not
selling off
their assets in
New Jersey,
but they’re not
growing in New
Jersey because
of the regulatory
framework,”
Dan Kennedy
Kennedy said.
“If things were to get worse … I think
we’re teetering on some of these
bread-and-butter NAIOP members
continuing that lack of new investment
in New Jersey and then focusing on
other states.”
To be clear, the Garden State remains
a coveted market for developers
and investors, especially across the
industrial and multifamily sectors,
where construction has surged over
the past decade. But Kennedy believes
that could change in the long run if
local governments continue to “push
away good, strong redevelopment
opportunities” because they don’t have
the courage to stand up to a few vocal
residents, he said. There’s also the very
real issue of “state government not
really having an appreciation for how
valuable what we do is to the state.”
“NAIOP is just a trade association,”
he said. “Really, it’s the value that
By Joshua Burd
this investment brings to New Jersey
in terms of jobs and taxes and
redevelopment opportunities. So
there’s a lot at stake, no matter who
wins in November.”
Those issues are central to the new
four-year strategic plan that NAIOP
New Jersey unveiled at the start of
2025, a gubernatorial election year,
with a focus on advocacy, creating
new value for its members and
improving the perception that public
offi cials, residents and other outside
stakeholders have of the commercial
real estate sector. Importantly, it
also calls for elevating the chapter’s
position in the industry, along with
enhancing partnerships with academia
and expanding its community service
programs.
“We are aspiring to not just be good
at playing defense with bad ideas in
Trenton,” Kennedy said during a recent
interview alongside Greek Real Estate
Partners’ Matt Schlindwein, NAIOP
New Jersey’s chapter president. “We
want to do more with promoting good
ideas that come from the industry to
make what we do easier and more
viable.”
That’s crucial given that “developers,
classically, get a bad rap. So we’re
getting more active with increasing
the understanding and knowledge
amongst New Jersey lawmakers and
citizens about what value commercial
real estate brings to the table that
they may not know about intuitively,
because all they’re doing is following
a thread on their local Facebook page
about how developers are the bad
guys.”
The blueprint comes at a pivotal time
for the industry, with Democrat Mikie