WATERFRONT HOTEL PLANS

CAMDEN – Developers of a planned Waterfront hotel, already approved for $18.3 million in state incentives, are seeking an additional tax break from the city.

A development group affiliated with Demcratic powerbroker George E. Norcross III has requested the incentive under a months-old city program.

The group, Camden Hotel Partners LLC, plans a 180-room hotel, with an estimated cost of $52.8 million, at Cooper Street and Riverside Drive.

The Camden grant would be funded over 20 years by a hotel/motel room-occupancy tax created by the city in December, according to an ordinance awaiting final approval. The aid would represent up to 75 percent of "incremental local revenues collected, or approximately $3,045,003," it says.

The hotel developer has said the aid "is necessary to provide gap financing to move the project forward," according to the ordinance.

The city on Friday declined to release the developer's application under the Open Public Records Act, asserting it was "currently in draft form; unapproved by the city; and being processed for further internal review and approval."

Camden can offer the tax break under the state Economic Opportunity Act, a 2013 law that’s directed more than $1.5 billion in tax breaks to projects in the impoverished city.

That total includes $18.3 million in state tax incentives for the hotel, approved in June by the state Economic Development Authority. The EDA also approved a $3 million low-interest loan for the planned Hilton Garden Hotel.

The EDA said its assistance also is intended to address a financing gap.

Construction of the eight-story hotel is expected to begin in September for completion by March 2019. The developer would cover 40 percent of the project’s cost, according to the EDA.

Conner Strong & Buckelew, a Marlton insurance firm run by Norcross, controls 30 percent of the hotel’s owner, according to the EDA.

Equal shares are held by The Michaels Organization, an Evesham housing firm, and NFI, a Cherry Hill logistics company.

A spokesman for Norcross referred questions to Ensemble Investments, a California hotel developer that owns 10 percent of the project. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

The grant request, which now goes to Mayor Dana Redd, is subject to a potential veto by the state’s Commissioner of Community Affairs.

But the ordinance says the hotel developer’s application already has approval of the state’s Local Finance Board and has undergone a financial analysis by the the state Economic Development Authority.

Conner Strong, NFI and The Michaels Organization also received a $245 million EDA tax break for an 18-story office tower planned for the Waterfront. That incentive was valued at $86.2 million for Connor Strong and at $79.4 million each for NFI and The Michaels Organization.

The office-tower incentive was provided under Grow New Jersey, an EDA program intended to keep employers from leaving the state. The three firms, which employ about 865 people, had said they might move to Philadelphia.

The 2013 law was sponsored by then-state Sen. Donald Norcross, a Camden Democrat and current congressman who is George Norcross' brother.

Jim Walsh; (856) 486-2646; jwalsh@gannettnj.com