Official Site of The State of New Jersey

Have A Business Need? NJBAC Can Help.

The NJBAC is offering no-cost technical assistance, training, and problem-solving – we are here to support all of your Business Enhancement needs. Whether you have a one-off resource question, are looking for a strategic assessment of a district, or could use some quick visualized tactical inspiration to foster visible and tangible change, NJBAC can help. Contact NJBAC Assistant Director Jef Buehler to start the conversation and move towards action.

Today’s email has information on assistance we can provide, as well as about technical and financial resources that may be a fit for your community or district. Please feel free to share this information with other officials, district management stakeholders, and businesses. To see all prior Business Enhancement Connection emails, click here!

Business Enhancement Update

After over 30 years of working to enhance and support communities and managed districts in NJ in a variety of roles, I am retiring from State service. It has been an honor to work with thousands of dedicated residents, business owners, property owners, elected and appointed officials, and a host of partners over that time, helping to increase our state’s quality of life and local economies - business by business and block by block.  In particular, I am grateful for Melanie Willoughby, Executive Director of NJBAC who made the creation of NJBAC’s Business Enhancement Services possible, and for all of those entities and individuals who trusted us to solve their problems and help them reach their goals over the past 2+ years. I have nothing but gratitude for the entire NJBAC Team and its GSD approach and collaborative culture – there has been no finer place I have been able to work. 

There will be a hopefully short transition period starting in mid-July where Business Enhancement Services will be put on hold until my positon is filled with a qualified candidate. At that time those services will resume with a similar level of responsiveness, quality assistance, creativity and passion for elevating NJ’s place, economic, social and civic value that has been our hallmark in this work.

Jef

Now on to this edition’s information:

Best Practices

Public Art & Pedestrian Safety in Orange and East Orange:  In BE Connection #39 we highlighted the NJTPA’s Complete Streets Demonstration Library, and how to use it for free to make visible and tangible change happen on your streets. In Orange and East Orange, the collaborators at Freeway Drive For All engaged local stakeholders, municipalities, and partners over months to learn about pedestrian and biking issues in the Freeway Drive corridor and ultimately design solutions to address those concerns. Check out their website to replicate their process for your communities, and here’s a marketing article the team created as well.

Webinar - Building Small Scale and Missing Middle Housing: Looking to make building small homes for seniors and first-time buyers in your town, creating greater housing diversity and options for every stage of life and economic capacity? Smart Growth America is hosting a free overview webinar on June 26^th at 3PM about the lack of starter homes and suitably sized housing for adults who live alone or want to downsize, and what communities can do about changing that. You can register here for the webinar.

Housing-Ready City Toolkit: If you already are open to exploring proven ways to diversify your local housing options, consider using this actionable 6-point approach by Strong Towns to help your community become more housing-ready. You can also download the one-page checklist and take a quick online survey to see how housing-ready your town is.  Incremental change is possible over time, yet in many cases local zoning and ordinances that were created 50-70 years ago are standing in the way of communities reaching their potential for economic resilience and sustainability. NJBAC’s Business Enhancement Services is happy to discuss the approaches to housing options that foster both a healthier community and local economy.

Planning Ahead - Spanish-Language Placemaking Webinar: Un webinar con tema Los 11 Principios del Placemaking: Ejemplos desde México por Fundación Placemaking   México sucede el martes 29 de julio a las 11 am (GMT-6). Este seminario web gratuito explorará los 11 principios del Placemaking, tal como se presentan en el libro de Project for Public Spaces How to Turn a Place Around y se aplican en ejemplos de referencia en todo México. Regístrate para el webinar aqui.

Featured Grants & Support

2025 Safe Streets & Road for All (SS4A) Grants:  County and local governments may apply for either planning or implementation grants totaling almost $1 Billion in funding for these grants. Implementation grants range from $2.5 million to $25 million, with approximately 40-70 grantees selected. Planning grants range from $100,000 to $5 million with approximately 400-700 grantees selected.  Planning and Demonstration Grant and Implementation Grant applications must be submitted by 5:00 PM (EDT) on June 26, 2025.  For all of the grant application details, take a look at the grant program guide here.  Want to see best practices and learn from folks who understand how to make a successful application? Check out this resource page with a webinar and other helpful examples and guidance.  To start an application for an Implementation Grant, see this link.  And to apply for a Planning Grant, use this link.

Free Business Incubator Program Online: Looking to support your business owners – particularly, but not exclusively women - with a no-cost high-impact online incubator program for small businesses for building skills, networks and increasing their access to resources? PROPEL, a 12-week curriculum that businesses can work through at their pace, guided by a mentor and with access to a team of experts is being offered by the non-profit Positive Planet US. Business owners build or refine their plan, and then launch and/or grow their business.  The next cohorts are starting in August, so it’s a great time to share this with your businesses – they can apply here online today! 

NJBAC Can Work With All the Businesses in Your Community

We are here to support your communities’ and districts’ businesses. NJBAC offers free online chat and telephone (800-537-7397) assistance in English and Spanish to any business in NJ – any size, any location, and any type. Businesses can always download the NJBAC Small Business Manual – a one-stop tool for many business concerns – online here. A Spanish version of the manual is also available here. Individual businesses or organizations can order a printed English copy as well by clicking this link or the Spanish version by clicking this link. For bulk orders of up to 25 printed copies in any language, please contact NJBAC’s Tracy Thomas directly.

Our NJBAC team can advocate for businesses, concierge them to funding and technical solutions, help them find locations for growth or developing export markets, guide them to navigating the commercial cannabis sector, and much more. Want to set something up online or on-site for your businesses? Reach out to NJBAC Assistant Director Jef Buehler to get plugged in to all of our business success services.

NJBAC’s Business Enhancement Services is online:  Now you can refer to Business Enhancement Services directly online with just a click!  Please favorite the website – it will be expanding over time as we add new resources and tools that support municipal and district revitalization and place-based business enhancement.