5 Reasons Tech Should Move to Newark Now

While much of the regional tech talk seems to be centered around Manhattan's Silicon Alley and Brooklyn's creative denizens, there's a hidden gem just a short train ride away: Newark. We're excited to bring together top experts to tell us why giants like Audible and Panasonic call Brick City home at our Looking Forward: The Future of Newark event Nov. 12 at 2 Gateway Center starting at 8am. We caught up with some of our panelists to get a sneak peek.

If you’re a tech company, Newark is where you want to be, says City of Newark chief information officer Seth Wainer. From NJIT to Rutgers and Essex Community College, there’s a talented student population looking for work. And the local world tech leaders, like Amazon.com's Audible and Panasonic, are growing the ecosystem. Newark certainly has location upsides, he notes: low prices relative to Manhattan and Brooklyn, incentives, availability of great Class-A office space, and the ability to develop talent cost-effectively.

Companies also have the opportunity to partner with educational and technological institutions to further advance their businesses (for instance, manufacturing, above—a huge industry in NJ—can benefit from the research). More buildings will be wired for gigabit Internet over the next 12 months, he says, and Newark also hosts the fastest large-scale, contiguous public outdoor WiFi network (called Firebolt Newark WiFi), which is capable of an over 400Mb/second download speed—to compare, Seth only clocks 15Mb/second at home.

Among the city’s unique features is this excellent connectivity. As one of the few nodes for the Internet, “Newark has fantastic bandwidth and we wanted to take advantage of that resource,” says Newark Venture Partners managing director Tom Wisniewski. Next month, NVP is opening a 25k SF tech space at One Washington Park, which will incubate software-enabled tech companies, helping them grow within Newark and rev the economy. One of its neighbors and backers is Audible, which moved to Newark in 2007 and has grown immensely. “We’re going to find the next Audibles,” Tom says of the accelerator. “They proved it can be done.” NVP plans to invest $50M in more than 100 companies over a five-year period.

Tom says the accelerator—which is sponsored by Amazon, Prudential Financial, Rutgers and real estate investors—already has interest across the spectrum, from online marketing tools to e-commerce platforms and a video startup. Among the benefits: gigabit-level bandwidth, unlimited cloud computing, access to on-site Amazon mentors, and access to Rutgers students, faculty and resources. Once companies “graduate” from the accelerator, NVP has an expansion fund to selectively invest in the growing companies. The Fidelco Group, which owns One Washington Park (above), is among the firms that has offered the startups expansion space when they're ready to spread their wings.

Newark has an incredible amount of potential, Tom says—and as a venture capitalist, he's naturally skeptical. He cites the significant development efforts concentrated in the Broad Street and Penn Station corridor (above); the revitalization of Military Park; and the number of significant business, civic and real estate projects coming on line, including the Whole Foods store in the Hahne’s condo complex. “We want to use our capital to make a lasting impact for Newark,” he says, noting that the fund’s economic returns to investors will be available to be sustainably recycled back into additional Newark tech investments or other social impact investing.

These tech companies will be looking for talented employees. On that end, Rutgers’ Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies has partnered with other institutions to launch the Newark City of Learning Collaborative, a citywide initiative to increase the percentage of residents with post-secondary degrees, certificates and quality credentials from 17% to 25% by 2025. In comparable cities, that number is much higher, and attracting business is predicated on an educated workforce, points out Cornwall Center executive director Roland Anglin. However, Newark is poised to attract these businesses “with leadership from the private sector, government and the higher educational institutions. We seem to have a perfect storm of interest and leadership that will take Newark to a next level of achievement.” And all indicators show that it'll go beyond downtown to the immediate neighborhoods as well, he says.

Overall, there’s $1B of investment that has been put to work over the past few years, including projects like RBH Group's Teachers Village and Makers Village, as well as many others such as the Courtyard by Marriott, the Indigo Hotel, Military Park’s renovation, and the "amazing" Prudential tower, says RBH Group CEO Ron Beit. Besides Teachers and Makers Villages, his firm is also behind the Four Corners Millennium project. “They’re all significant investments and highly designed to create better walkability and livability in our city, which will have a tremendous impact on Newark,” he notes.

The multi-building Teachers Village (above) consists of three charter schools and an early childhood learning center, 204 units of rental apartments targeted to teachers and 65k SF of retail, of which the fifth building is nearing completion in a few short weeks and the sixth building is under construction. Makers Village is a 69k SF development anchored by AeroFarms, scheduled for completion in February 2016, and Four Corners Millennium consists of several mixed-use residential, hotel, office and retail buildings, scheduled to commence construction next year. These projects will help bind the two nodes of development between Military Park and the Prudential Center and allow for a continuous experience throughout the neighborhood. “We’re looking forward on both the built side and the social side for the 21st century city right here in Newark,” he says. “We’re excited to see years of planning and hard work play out before our eyes.”

Don't miss these experts and more at our Looking Forward: The Future of Newark event on Nov. 12 at 2 Gateway Center. Great networking starts at 8am, followed by our panel discussion. Sign up here!