2015

Rowan University Spurs $108 million In Economic Activity In Glassboro

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Econsult Solutions, Inc. released a report detailing Rowan University’s far-reaching economic impact on its host communities and it’s huge – more than $108 million per year in Glassboro alone.

In Rowan’s host communities of Glassboro, Camden, and Stratford, Rowan is stimulating vast private investment, creating jobs, boosting real estate markets, and offering a wide range of services to the public including medical care, education, and arts & entertainment.

In Glassboro, home to the growing university’s main campus, Rowan has an annual economic impact of more than $108 million annually, supports more than 1,000 jobs outside the university and is a critical partner in the $300 million Rowan Boulevard project, a public-private initiative that is transforming a one-time downward turning neighborhood.

“It is our responsibility as a public research University to improve the local economy by improving access to higher education, offering high-quality programs, keeping education affordable and spurring the economy,” said Rowan University President Dr. Ali Houshmand. “I am proud that the University has had such an economic influence on our host communities, our region, and the State.”

In addition to direct economic impact, Rowan students, faculty and staff volunteer an estimated 25,000 hours per year – from free medical services at the University’s two medical schools to work in food pantries, shelters and throughout the community. The market value of Rowan volunteer service in Glassboro and Camden alone is estimated to be $175,000 per year.

Driving construction trades

From Glassboro to Camden to Stratford, Rowan is in the midst of roughly $300 million in active design and construction projects, all of which create good paying, skilled jobs whose ripple effect supports the local economy and reaches far beyond.

In Glassboro, where most of Rowan’s major construction is now centered, work is underway on a $70 million second building for the Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering, a new $63 million home for the Rohrer College of Business, and a $129 million, 1,400-bed residence hall. Those projects alone are creating nearly 2,600 construction jobs.

Concurrently, Rowan is investing directly off campus with a new building for the College of Communication & Creative Arts (CCCA) at 301 W. High Street in Glassboro and has leased space for the CCCA Dean’s office and Journalism faculty in a restored former bank building at 6 E. High Street, moves designed to further integrate Rowan with Glassboro and attract private investment to the historic downtown.

Rowan is also investing heavily in its Camden campus, where a multi-million expansion is underway.
This week’s report by Econsult Solutions, Inc. (ESI) of Philadelphia, Rowan University’s Impact on its Host Communities, notes that the institution, through its popular RowanCard debit card program, supports participating Glassboro businesses with more than $4 million per year and that over the last five years Rowan spent $45 million with Glassboro and Camden vendors.

“Rowan’s effect on its host communities is profound and immediate,” said Lee Huang, senior vice president and principal of ESI. “Equally important, today’s construction projects will have a catalyzing effect as investment is drawn to investment, more students are drawn to Rowan, and the pattern repeats itself.”

Rowan, which today has 15,500 students, is projected to have 25,000 students by 2023 at its three campuses and online.

Stronger communities

ESI found that Rowan’s presence in its host communities is building critical mass, driving real estate markets and supporting residents with a wide variety of programs and resources in education, health care, entertainment and recreation.

Rowan directly supports the real estate market in each of its host communities by encouraging faculty and staff to buy homes and live in them there. It offers a ten-year, $1,500 per year housing incentive for employees who buy homes in Glassboro, Camden, or Stratford.

The program has helped stabilize and boost property values near the University while a program of economic development grants to the municipalities has helped offset the need for tax increases and the cost of public safety.

“The ESI report shows how our redevelopment planning is on track and our partnership with Rowan is especially strong,” said Glassboro Mayor Leo McCabe. “I’ve said it before but it’s never been more true – as the University goes, so does the Borough of Glassboro.”

An even stronger state

The local economic impact study is a companion piece to a statewide evaluation that ESI released in February determining Rowan’s impact throughout New Jersey to be $1.23 billion annually. That report found that Rowan supports 9,200 jobs statewide and generates $19 million in state taxes per year.
Rowan last conducted an economic impact study in 2004 when enrollment, at 9,688, was less than 2/3 what it is today, and its local economic impact, then about $17 million per year in Glassboro, was less than 1/6 what it is today.

Houshmand said Rowan conducts periodic studies about its economic impact to quantify how public investment in it gets returned to the community. Rowan’s annual operating budget of $440 million creates a statewide economic impact of nearly three times that amount.

“I fully expect that the findings in this report will, in turn, spur even greater investment in our host communities,” Houshmand said.

Though major capital projects are greatest in Glassboro this year, Rowan is investing heavily to develop resources in Camden and Stratford. The University in 2012 created Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden (and has since built a $140 million facility) and has operated its Camden campus since 1969.

In 2013 Rowan became New Jersey’s second comprehensive public research university and, the same year, acquired the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford to become just the second university in the nation to offer both osteopathic and allopathic medical degree programs.

To download the report, click here.

PennEast Pipeline Economic Impact Report and Analysis

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Drexel University Analysis Details Economic Impact of PennEast Construction and Ongoing Operations

WYOMISSING, Pa. – The design and construction of the PennEast Pipeline will generate approximately $1.6 billion in additional wages, revenues and investments to regional and state economies of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according to a new Drexel University study released today.

“PennEast Pipeline Project Economic Impact Analysis,” co-authored by Econsult Solutions, finds that the proposed project would have a major, positive impact on the economies of the two states in which it would be built and operated.

According to researchers, design and construction of the PennEast Pipeline would support approximately 12,160 jobs and an associated $740 million in wages. Additionally, the ongoing operation of the pipeline would generate approximately $23 million in annual economic impact, supporting 98 jobs with $8.3 million in wages. Even greater economic impact from ongoing operations would be realized from the new supply of natural gas to PennEast customers in the Pennsylvania and New Jersey markets.

“Drexel’s analysis illustrates the substantial economic benefit of the PennEast Pipeline,” said Peter Terranova, chairman of the PennEast Pipeline board of managers. “As a large infrastructural improvement project, it will support thousands of jobs and generate more than a billion and a half dollars of economic activity in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The sustained long-term value of PennEast also would be realized in the form of lower energy bills to consumers.”

“This project will deliver what our region is most sorely in need of: jobs,” said Fred Potter, president of Teamsters Local Union 469 in New Jersey. “This project will put several hundred New Jersey tradesmen to work at a time when our economy is dependent on getting people back to work.”

Key findings from the analysis include:

• The design and construction of the project will require an investment of $1.19 billion by PennEast through the end of 2017.
• The majority of the direct expenditures will be in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with some materials and labor sourced from other states.
• The multi-year construction phase of the project is expected to result in direct, indirect and induced economic impact of $1.6 billion and associated 12,160 jobs in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; the six-county region of the project is expected to recognize the majority of this impact.
• The ongoing operations of the project will generate an annual expenditure of $13.2 million by PennEast, resulting in an expected $23 million in annual economic impact and supporting 98 jobs; the six-county region of the project is expected to recognize the majority of this annual impact.
• The study focuses on the supported workforce resulting from the project and its estimated contribution of more than $17.5 million in personal income taxes during construction. Significant other federal, state and local taxes also would be generated, though not quantified in the report.
• Numerous industries would benefit from the construction and on-going operations of the pipeline, including professional services and retail establishments.

“Using detailed construction and operations budget projections, our team designed a model to estimate the economic impact the design and construction activity, as well as ongoing pipeline operations, would generate,” said Stephen Mullin, president of Econsult Solutions.

“We find that the immediate construction and labor impacts of the PennEast Pipeline Project are substantial and would greatly benefit local communities through construction, labor and project management jobs,” said Vibhas Madan, professor of economics at Drexel University LeBow College of Business. “Construction and ongoing operations of the project would be economically beneficial to the counties the pipeline would cross, as well as to both states as a whole. Lower energy bills lead to an increase in disposable income for consumers, allowing for additional spending in the economy. For instance, we estimate that every $10 million in increased disposable income, derived from lower energy prices, would generate a total economic impact of $13.5 million and support 90 jobs.”

The complete economic impact analysis is available here. The approximately 110-mile, 36-inch diameter PennEast Pipeline will transport approximately one billion cubic feet of clean, natural gas per day – enough to serve approximately 4.7 million homes. It will run from Dallas, Luzerne County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, to Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington, Mercer County, New Jersey.

“The PennEast Pipeline will provide affordable energy and security for years to come benefitting, families, manufacturers and power generators,” said Terranova. “We’re extremely excited to better understand the overall economic benefits the region will realize due to this project.

Sunoco Logistics Mariner East Economic Impact Report

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Sunoco Logistics’ Natural Gas Liquids Projects to Support More Than 30,000 Jobs, Create Recurring Economic Benefits Across the Commonwealth

PHILADELPHIA – February 5, 2015 – Philadelphia-based Econsult Solutions, Inc. today released an economic impact study that finds the Sunoco Logistics (NYSE: SXL) Mariner East projects are expected to add up to $4.2 billion to Pennsylvania’s economy, supporting more than 30,000 jobs during the construction period and approximately 300-400 permanent jobs.

The study, commissioned by Sunoco Logistics, is designed to forecast the potential economic and fiscal impacts of its proposed Mariner East projects on the Commonwealth’s economy, including the development of a 50-mile pipeline that connects with an existing pipeline, construction of a new 350-mile pipeline, and the repurposing of its Marcus Hook Industrial Complex to store and process natural gas liquids (NGLs).

SXL recently announced plans to invest approximately $3 billion in Pennsylvania for the Mariner East projects to transport NGLs from western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and eastern Ohio to its Marcus Hook Industrial Complex – a former oil refinery – for storage, processing, and distribution of NGLs, such as propane, ethane, and butane.

The study finds that construction of the Mariner East projects will support an estimated 30,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs throughout the construction period, including direct jobs in the construction industry as well as architectural and engineering jobs, wholesale trade business jobs, and professional, scientific, and technical service jobs. According to the study, the projects will generate an estimated $23 million in personal income tax to the Commonwealth throughout the construction period plus a secondary potential fiscal impact for a total $62 million in tax revenues for the Commonwealth from direct, indirect and induced activities of SXL, its vendors and employees.

In addition to construction benefits, the study projects that NGL transport, processing and distribution from the Mariner East projects will create a recurring economic impact from ongoing operations. Although the total expenditure for operations at the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex has not been finalized, SXL predicts spending between $60 and $90 million annually to operate the pipeline projects beginning in 2017. Throughout the entire Commonwealth, the total economic impact of the projects’ ongoing service is estimated to be between $100 and $150 million annually, supporting between 300 to 400 full time equivalent jobs with estimated earnings of $22 million to $33 million.  Ongoing operations and their spillover impacts will generate between $800,000 and $1.2 million in annual tax revenue to the Commonwealth. The majority of employment and expenditure impacts are estimated to be in the southeastern Pennsylvania region (including the City of Philadelphia and Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware and Chester counties) due to the ongoing operations at Marcus Hook Industrial Complex, according to the study.

“Our numbers indicate that the Mariner East project will significantly impact the state’s economy, from the jobs it will create and support, both temporary and permanent, to the tax revenues generated for the Commonwealth,” said Stephen P. Mullin, President and Principal of Econsult Solutions, Inc. “You just don’t see companies investing $3 billion on capital projects in Pennsylvania every day.”

The Mariner East projects will increase the locally available domestic supply of propane, meeting both the residential need for propane and the commercial need for propane and other NGLs as inputs to catalyze regional manufacturing. Additionally, new business and job opportunities may also become available in southeastern Pennsylvania due to the stabilized local supply of NGLs.

Econsult Solutions, Inc. used an econometric model to estimate the direct and indirect economic benefits of both the construction of the Mariner East pipelines and the renovations at the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex and their ongoing operations. The model estimated the purchase of goods and services from local vendors, labor income spent by employees regionally, and other spillover economic impacts, and translated these economic impacts into the generation of estimated tax revenues.