Corrections or additions?
These articles by Barbara Fox were prepared for the September 10,
2003 issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Life in the Fast Lane
Don’t cry for the business employment incentive grants
any more — they’re back, and they’re better.
When Governor James E. McGreevey was slashing the budget earlier this
year, the Business Employment Incentive Program was one of the first
items cut. But the politicos have worked out a way to have their cake
and eat it too, changing the law so that, even in slim years like
this one, the BEIP will get funded. Now the New Jersey Economic
Development
Authority (EDA) can issue contract bonds to fund the program.
Here’s how it works: Participating businesses receive incentive grants
for creating at least 25 new jobs. The standard payment is 50 percent
of the state income taxes generated by the new employees, and the
award can go up to 80 percent for exceptional cases. "This is
one of the state’s best tools for attracting new businesses and
helping
existing businesses to expand and grow," says Philip Kirschner,
president of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.
"Best
of all, the program pays for itself."
The new BEIP rules are good news for technology firms, which are now
allowed to bypass the minimum of 25 jobs that apply to all other
businesses.
Biotechnology firms and other high-tech businesses can create just
10 new jobs and still qualify for the program. This is of great
importance
to the high tech companies in Central New Jersey as shown by U.S.
1 Business Directory statistics: Three-fourths of the technology
companies
in this area have fewer than 50 employees, so they are much more
likely
to qualify for a BEIP grant under the new rules.
Supporters of the BEIP emphasize the "pays for itself"
provision;
no payments are made to the employer until the new employees work
one full year. Left unsaid is that if those new jobs were already
going to be created, and the incentives had not been promised, the
state would get to keep all of the employee-generated taxes.
Nevertheless, the evidence is strong that the BEIP does make a
difference
in persuading a company to move to New Jersey or stay here. "It’s
one of the factors that companies would consider if they were planning
to move to, or expand in New Jersey," says Glenn Phillips, EDA
spokesperson, noting that the BEIP grant influenced John Wiley & Sons
to bring 1,000 jobs from Manhattan to Hoboken.
This year the state gave out $38 million in BEIP grants, and Governor
McGreevey cites statistics that 3,906 jobs have been created in Mercer
County with BEIP funds. Overall, New Jersey has gained 35,000 jobs
this year in an economy where most states are losing jobs.
In announcing the new law, McGreevey visited Lexicon Pharmaceuticals,
which is working on therapies for obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, and
diabetes. Alan J. Main, senior vice president of Lexicon, has said
that the BEIP was an incentive for his company to move from
Princeton-Hightstown
Road to Lucent’s former building in Hopewell rather than going out
of state (U.S. 1, February 19).
New Jersey has upped the ante for Pennsylvania, making it more
attractive
for a company to leave Philadelphia. Before, the only taxes that
counted
for the grant were those paid by workers who lived in New Jersey.
(Under an agreement between the two states, those who work in New
Jersey and live in Pennsylvania pay Pennsylvania taxes.) With the
new rules, companies can be reimbursed for all the income taxes that
their workers pay, even if the tax is paid to Pennsylvania.
Says NJBIA’s Kirschner: "BEIP provides something that our state
and our economy needs-jobs. For every BEIP grant we fund, there is
a real person with a real family who gets a real job,"
— Barbara Fox
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Contracts Awarded
Princeton 08543. Paul J. Kelly MD, CEO. 609-750-2200; fax,
609-750-6400.
Home page: www.orchid.com
Sherlock Holmes’ magnifying glass would be at a distinct
disadvantage in a modern solve-the-crime contest with the New Scotland
Yard, which uses the latest forensic techniques. The venerable British
detective agency, Metropolitan Police Service, has signed a three-year
contract with Orchid Cellmark to provide scene-of-crime forensic DNA
testing services. The deal, worth several million dollars a year,
is the largest ever awarded to a private laboratory in the United
Kingdom.
OrchidBiosciences has services and products for profiling genetic
uniqueness, including forensic and paternity DNA testing,
pharmacogenetics-based
personalized healthcare, and public health genotyping services. It
bought its way into the U.K. market with the purchase of a DNA testing
company in 2001, and now OrchidCellmark is the largest DNA forensic
testing service in the world. For this contract it will work with
U.K.-based Forensic Alliance. Orchid has a similar deal with the
police
in Houston, Texas.
East, Suite 2100, Princeton 08540. Dipak Chattaraj, managing director.
609-720-9200; fax, 609-720-1155. Home page: www.ranbaxy.com
The Food and Drug Administration gave the go-ahead for Ranbaxy
Laboratories
to enter Ortho McNeil’s Floxin market, for treatment of mild to
moderate
infections. Ranbaxy will begin to sell its generic product, Ofloxacin,
this month.
A Ranbaxy subsidiary, Ohm Laboratories, has begun to market the
generic
equivalent to Schering’s Claritin, known as Loratadine.
Ranbaxy is a global generic pharmaceutical company, a division of
Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., based in New Delhi, India. It manufactures,
sells, and markets prescription and OTC pharmaceutical products.
Ranbaxy
has been selling generics in this country for five years and is now
the ninth largest maker of generics in the United States.
Princeton 08540. Craig Kirsch, CEO. 609-606-3000; fax, 609-606-3297.
Home page: www.princetonecom.com
The company announced on September 8 that its current investors have
added $5 million to its coffers. They include Lazard Technology
Partners,
New Century Equity Holding, Mellon Ventures and Terra Lycos Ventures.
Founded in 1984, the company offers electronic payment solutions to
banks, billers and its partners.
"This latest round of financing provides our customers the
assurance
of financial stability that they are requiring and the financial
resources
we require to enhance our industry and technology leadership,"
says Craig Kirsch, Princeton eCom’s CEO.
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Expansions
Street, Box 8487, Trenton 08650-8487. Patrick M. Ryan, president and
CEO. 609-581-2809; fax, 609-584-5984.
Yardville National Bank has agreed to buy the Lawrenceville branch
of First Savings Bank. The price was not disclosed, but the branch
has deposits of $40 million.
Yardville has a deposit base of more than $1.4 billion, assets of
$2.35 billion, and Lawrenceville will be its 21st branch. If approved
by the regulatory agencies, the transaction will close by the end
of this year.
Main Street, Windsor 08561-0500. C. Herbert Schneider, president and
CEO. 609-426-1000; fax, 609-426-9624. Home page: www.fwsb.com
First Washington State Bank is planning to open two branch offices
inside ShopRite supermarkets, one at Hamilton Market Place on Route
130 and another at Parkside Plaza on North Olden Avenue in EWing.
The community bank, which has 125 employees in Central New Jersey,
has obtained approvals from the FDIC and the state banking department.
311 Enterprise Drive, Plainsboro 08536. Stuart M. Essig,
president/CEO.
609-936-3600; fax, 609-936-2263. Home page: www.integra-ls.com
The 12-year-old biotechnology company just bought the patent portfolio
of Neuron Therapeutics — drug therapies for neurotrauma (disorders
of the central nervous system). Neuron Therapeutics, based in Malvern,
Pennsylvania, is in bankruptcy. The purchase was the seventh
acquisition
in 13 months.
In the past year Integra has bought two surgical instrument companies,
including one that focuses on burn reconstruction. In July 2002
Integra
bought a division of Boston-based NMT Medical. With the purchase came
a product line for managing hydrocephalus.
Mill Road, Pennington 08534. Lawrence H. Krampf, chief executive
officer.
609-818-9800; fax, 609-818-9213. Home page: www.pcgads.com
Princeton Communications Group has acquired New York-based Marke
Communications,
a direct mail and catalog firm that will now be an affiliate company
of PCG.
Marke is a full service direct response agency that specializes in
integrated marketing using both traditional and electronic media.
Among its clients are direct marketers, retailers, financial, and
business to business clients.
PCG now has a New York office at 45 West 45th Street. Nancy H. Becker
Associates, PCG’s lobbying division, has a Trenton office.
Neuman Building, Suite 201, Mercerville 08619. 609-528-8000; fax,
609-584-1802. Home page: www.ppdi.com
PPD Development, the clinical research operating subsidiary of PPD
Inc., moved its office from 15,000 feet on 1009 Lenox Drive to the
Neuman Building on Quakerbridge Road, which also houses the Children’s
Specialized Hospital. With 40 workers in 16,000 square feet, it offers
integrated drug development services.
When this organization first moved to Lenox Drive, it belonged to
Pharmaco International, a Texas-based CRO. Pharmaco was bought out
in the mid 1990s by Pharmaceutical Product Development. Now it is
part of PPD Inc., which is headquartered in Wilmington, North
Carolina,
and has more than 5,600 employees in 27 countries.
"With a global infrastructure, dedicated project teams,
cross-functional
therapeutic units, and innovative technologies, PPD Development works
with a worldwide commitment to quality to deliver strategic solutions
for preclinical programs, Phase I-IV clinical development, and post
market support," says Louise Caudle, director of corporate
communications.
What Caudle does not tell is the name of anyone in senior management
on Quakerbridge Road, because doing so would be against company
policy.
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Leaving Town
fax, 609-883-3413.
URS has left its Ewing offices. The global construction management
company has 25,000 employees in 300 offices. It has New Jersey offices
in Vineland, Florence, Cranford, Newark, Paramus, and Wayne.
Top Of Page
Deaths
ArtsBridge, was assistant to the director of the New Jersey State
Museum, and publicist for the New Jersey Historical Commission (U.S.
1, December 20, 2000).
educational
coordinator at Mercer County Vo-Tech Schools.
He was a mathematician and cryptologist at the Institute of Defense
Analyses. Just before he died he was working at a 2,000-year-old
mathematical
problem: how to calculate the largest possible area of a polygon given
only the lengths of its sides. In 1994 he had discovered this formula
for pentagons and hexagons but was searching for the general solution
for all polygons.
under the pen name Salmon Ryder, he received a grant from the New
Jersey State Council on the Arts and was a longstanding member of
the U.S. 1 Poets & Writers Cooperative of New Jersey. For many years
he worked for attorney Kathryn Trenner.
manager of finance for General Electric.
financial planner.
A fund-raising consultant and philanthropist, she published "The
Mitchell Guide: A Directory of New Jersey Foundations." A service
will be Saturday, September 27, at 3 p.m., at St. Matthew’s Episcopal
Church, Pennington.
Corrections or additions?
This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com
— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
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