The New Brunswick Development Corporation (Devco) engaged ESI to analyze the potential economic impacts and conduct a Net Benefit Test for the proposed New Brunswick Health + Life Sciences Exchange Development. The 12-story building will be the home to the new Rutgers University Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, a comprehensive translational research facility for Rutgers University, and the New Jersey Innovation Hub.
The project will have significant tangible and intangible impacts, bringing Rutgers’ flagship medical school into downtown New Brunswick and strengthening New Brunswick’s reputation as a rising hub for innovative scientific research, potentially helping to attract further research and development activity to the area. The Health + Life Sciences Exchange is anticipated to be among the first applicants for a transformative tax credit under the NJEDA Aspire program, which would provide substantial support to Devco to make the project a reality. ESI’s analysis included evaluating the economic and fiscal impacts of the project over a 10-year period, including impacts resulting from operation of the facility, growth in licensing revenues from academic research, and the spinoff of new businesses started within the innovation hub.
This project was the first awardee of the new NJ Aspire tax credit program.
