Since 1994, NJCDC has invested over $100 million in the physical infrastructure of our neighborhood, developing more than 200 units of affordable housing, building a K-8 charter school, and creating several other community use structures to drive the revitalization of the broader Great Falls Historic District and Neighborhood.

What was once a neighborhood severely neglected, with large abandoned and deteriorated industrial buildings and properties, broken sidewalks and streets, has now been transformed into a bustling center with schools, children, and families, and serves as the gateway to the Great Falls National Historical Park and a main artery connecting many of the City's main streets and highways.

The transformation of our neighborhood continues, and will include more development of housing, schools, recreational spaces, parks, and community gardens.

Our Diverse Portfolio

NJCDC's Real Estate Development department has an excellent track record in new construction, adaptive-reuse historic rehabilitation, and property management, offering green features in all projects. Beginning with our first supportive housing development in 2007, NJCDC has built a diverse real estate portfolio that includes affordable and supportive housing, office and community event space, several parks and gardens, and a community charter school.

Financial Expertise

Across all of our developments, we effectively leverage private, state, federal, and local resources in order to make the projects succeed.

We offer expertise and extensive experience with various financial tools including:

• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Section 811 program

• Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit (NRTC) program

• Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program

• New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency's (NJHMFA) Special Needs Housing Trust Fund

• Home Investment Partnership Program (HOME)

• State Rental Assistance Program (SRAP)

• HUD's Shelter Plus Care Program (S+C)

• HUD McKinney Capital Funds

• Conventional Bank Financing

• New Jersey Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF)

• Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program

• Federal Home Loan Bank of New York (FHLBNY)

  
  

Through the careful application and management of these resources, NJCDC serves hundreds of low- and moderate-income individuals, as well as those with special needs, within the community. In all of our real estate endeavors, NJCDC has maintained a flawless track record in stewarding both public and private dollars. 

Future Opportunities

We are always on the lookout for new opportunities to physically revitalize Paterson's urban landscape, and to create beautiful, healthy, and safe spaces for the community we serve. We are committed to bringing back physical assets to ensure the Great Falls Neighborhood is a place people choose to live and raise their families.

For more information: Please contact our Chief Real Estate Development Officer at 973.413.1635 or by sending us a message. 

NRTC Program

New Jersey's Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit (NRTC) program has played an instrumental role in NJCDC's success in revitalizing Paterson's Great Falls Neighborhood.

The NRTC program, run by New Jersey's Department of Community Affairs (DCA), offers corporate sponsors a 100% tax credit for funds provided to nonprofits carrying out comprehensive revitalization plans. NRTC's funding structure is split 60%-40%, with 60% of grant funds intended for economic development, housing, and capital projects, and the remaining 40% for programming efforts to build a stronger neighborhood.

This is in keeping with NJCDC's own philosophy for revitalization, requiring the combined forces of both economic development and important social and other services that allow neighborhood residents to achieve an improved quality of life and to participate in a growing economy.

As a result of NRTC funding, NJCDC has seen a marked decrease in the amount of blight in our neighborhood, an increase in economic activity and real estate development, and an increase in job- and school- ready adults, teenagers, and children.

The NRTC program and NJCDC's supportive corporate sponsors, including Valley Bank, Lakeland Bank, Amerigroup New Jersey, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Provident Bank, TD Bank, PNC Bank, and PSE&G, have funded portions of the acquisition and construction of the following four capital projects, all located in Paterson:

Neighborhood Infill Housing

105 Mill Street and 157 Wayne Avenue

NRTC Corporate Supporters: Express Scripts; Horizon Blue Cross; M&T Bank; PNC Bank; Provident Bank; PSE&G; Sealy Mattress Company; Sterling National Bank; Valley National Bank

In 2023, NJCDC completed the construction of two small multifamily buildings in our neighborhood. We purchased two vacant lots contributing to neighborhood blight, and built a total of seven new affordable units for local families. These infill projects are part of a new strategy for NJCDC’s real estate projects, redeveloping existing empty land in Paterson into affordable housing that fits into existing residential neighborhoods. Through this initiative, we are able to address urban blight while meeting the high need for affordable housing options.

Great Falls Youth Center

52 Front Street

NRTC Corporate Supporters: Atlantic Stewardship Bank; Horizon Blue Cross; Lakeland Bank; M&T Bank; Railroad Construction Company; Sterling National Bank; Thomson Reuters; Valley National Bank

NJCDC rehabilitated a rundown building just adjacent to Paterson's John F. Kennedy High School—where we operate our Compete for Life program—and transformed it into the Great Falls Youth Center in 2018. In addition to serving as a youth center, the facility provides non-traditional education and training opportunities not currently available locally to neighborhood students and young adults. This includes training in the area of sound and video production, micro-enterprise development, and mentorship opportunities. This adaptive re-use is consistent with survey data in our neighborhood plan that indicates the need for expanded access to youth recreation, job training and readiness programs and for expanded access to arts programming. Additionally, the renovation of this eyesore property enhanced the quality of life in—and appearance of—this neighborhood.

Over the past several years, the Youth Center has served many Paterson high school students, and now serves almost 100 students each day. To better serve the growing number of students, we opened an expansion to the Youth Center in 2023.

Park Corner Plaza

97 Spruce Street

NRTC Corporate Supporters: Boiling Springs Savings Bank; Horizon Blue Cross; JP Morgan Chase; Lakeland Bank; PNC Bank; Prudential; PSE&G; Thomson Reuters

In 2017, NJCDC completed construction of a $4 million mixed-use building at 97 Spruce Street, in place of an abandoned, fire-damaged building on a formerly blighted lot. Situated on a highly visible site at the gateway to Paterson's historic district and the Great Falls National Park, the new building includes 2,800 square feet of prime retail space and eleven new apartments for low- and moderate-income households. Physical conditions in the neighborhood have improved substantially as a result of this project, and today the building hosts a SportsMed physical therapy office on the first floor in addition to housing residents.

Michael's Energy Factory

59 Spruce Street

NRTC Corporate Supporters: Boiling Springs Savings Bank; PNC Bank; PSE&G; Thomson Reuters

In 2015, NJCDC used NRTC funds to help with the purchase of a $2.6 million preschool building at 59 Spruce Street from an insolvent preschool provider whose bankruptcy threatened to leave 250 children and families without a preschool. We currently lease the building to Philips Academy Charter School of Paterson. In this way, we avoided yet another blighted property in our neighborhood and ensured that critical education services are being provided to hundreds of Paterson children.

Rogers Meeting Center

32 Spruce Street

In 2012, NJCDC completed construction of an innovative $4.8 million meeting center nestled within the Great Falls National Historical Park. NJCDC used NRTC funds to rehabilitate the historic building (the former storage building of the Rogers Locomotive Works), which is now in full operation as a community gathering and event space. NJCDC's Greater Spruce Street Neighborhood Plan identified a lack of community spaces in the area and this building has directly addressed that need. The facility is used for community meetings, celebrations, and educational opportunities.

In addition to these four capital projects, NRTC funding has been used to support an array of programming designed to build a stronger Great Falls Neighborhood:

1. NJCDC's Neighborhood Help Center, which provides neighborhood outreach and job readiness training.

2. The Great Falls Street Team, to keep local streets free of trash and debris.

3. The Paterson Youth Arts program, which provides free arts education for Paterson youth.

4. NJCDC's Full Service Community Schools programming, which provides a variety of programs and services to support student success and to strengthen families.

NJCDC's CEO Bob Guarasci said, "NRTC funding has been essential to our work revitalizing Paterson's Great Falls Neighborhood. We've transformed a vacant former American Legion building into youth center, replaced a highly visible neighborhood blight with low- and moderate - income housing and retail space, and saved a neighborhood preschool from bankruptcy. NRTC has allowed us to provide hundreds of local youth with arts programming, operate after-school programs, and bring college interns to Paterson to help expand services. The work my colleagues and I do each and every day would not be possible without the NRTC program."