4 min read September 2022 — The Cumberland County Improvement Authority (The Authority), an economic development and redevelopment agency serving Cumberland County, advocates for local businesses, assists in the expansion of new business and industry and helps in fostering innovation in the region. Invest: spoke with President and CEO Gerard Velazquez about the movement of businesses and people to the region, sustainability efforts and economic growth potential.
What have been the most important developments that have affected Cumberland County and your projects over the recent months of 2022?
The biggest change from last year has been the influx of the cannabis industry into Cumberland County. We have about eight or nine cannabis companies that are either located or have expressed an interest in locating here. There is a lot of growth. We are trying to improve our infrastructure too. We have had a very significant influx of people and companies due to our COVID social distancing situation in the county. Some international companies from Europe and Italy have also set up their headquarters in the area. A lot of international companies as well as U.S.-based businesses are expanding in the areas of food, cannabis and manufacturing.
What are the opportunities and the challenges that you are going to tackle for the remainder of the year?
The challenge is to ensure that we have proper infrastructure. This would be predominantly electricity to keep up with the expansion of the cannabis industry and other industries that are utility users. I believe that work opportunities are going to be available for residents of the county and the region. We are making sure that we have the trained staff to take on these positions. Since our last conversation, 50 jobs have been created at the one-stop shop new airport facility. Anticipated expansion may increase the number of jobs to 200. Broadband expansion is also a major priority for the county.
What efforts in terms of sustainability are you making in line with Gov. Murphy’s goals?
The cannabis companies are looking to implement alternative energy, whether it be natural gas, wind energy or solar. We operate the landfill as well as at our office on methane gas. We are also installing a 30 megawatt solar project on our campus. We have our own microgrid that we call the energy hub. We generate and use our own electricity. Our operation is 100% sustainable via alternative energy.
Why did you choose a microgrid instead of the traditional grid?
The microgrid was an opportunity for us to take our methane gas and turn it into electricity. We wanted to make sure that we were good stewards of our environment. We also have a CNG station that processes natural gas to create Gas Gallon Equivalents (GGEs). CNG vehicles have almost zero emissions as compared to diesel trucks. Part of our philosophy with respect to the landfill operation is to be good stewards for the environment and to do whatever we can to help sustain the environment. One of the challenges that we have had related to one of the governor’s goals is the disconnect between implementation in the community versus the goals and objectives of the state. We have been working with the BPU and Atlantic City Electric to ensure that locally we have the proper infrastructure to implement the sustainable energy goals of the state and of Cumberland County in particular. Our grid is not robust enough to handle the growth of the alternative energy that we need to incorporate into our new businesses.
What is the state of the electric vehicle charging stations in the county?
We are working on implementing charging stations. One of the issues we have in Cumberland is that we are rural. Electric vehicles are a difficult sale because you need to travel long distances. Getting from one side of the Vineland, which is 69 square miles, and moving from one part of the county to the other takes time. It is a challenge to convince people that electric vehicles are the way to go in the future. We are going to install at least four or five different charging stations at our various sites for our tenants and our staff to utilize as we begin the process of implementing the utilization of electric vehicles in our county.
What are the industries that are leading the growth and those that are lagging behind?
We continue to grow on the food and cannabis side. We are not a heavy tourist county as compared to our neighboring counties. Our industries are focused on manufacturing, food processing and cannabis. There is going to be a lot of growth in warehousing and logistics. We have at least five or six projects that have received planning approval and should be constructed in the next couple of years.
What role does The Authority play in bringing new businesses to the county?
We are the county’s one-stop entity. We serve as a liaison for businesses that want to come to the county. Those businesses are connected with the municipalities where they wish to locate. We act as a would-be developer. We locate property and funding for these businesses. We also connect them with local banks and make sure that they receive assistance with local approvals. We walk them through the process from start to finish. Cumberland County also has the availability from a funding perspective to help businesses with similar incentives as compared to larger urban cities. From a cost perspective, the county has available, affordable land, and labor and cost of construction is less expensive. We also get the business tied in with workforce development and assist with customized training.
What is the state of the workforce in Cumberland County?
I think it is similar but not as severe as the northern part of the state. We have plenty of positions available. The workforce is coming back to work, and they can pick and choose positions at the moment. People who are getting jobs now in food processing, manufacturing and in warehousing need a lot of customized training as the industry has evolved. We need to provide people with new skills and get them up to speed on different types of work available.
How do you think the landscape is going to change in the next two to three years for Cumberland County?
I think the influx of people is going to have an impact on our rural county. It impacts housing and schools. There will be new insights with new people observing how we do things here. It might change how people look at things politically. We will try to direct and manage the change. We will need to manage the influx of the people coming here for new jobs. We need to get folks to think a little differently as they like the rural nature of our community. We need to change if we want to grow and to sustain. We are focusing on growth in certain designated areas that the residents agreed on so that we don’t have growth everywhere. These are places where we have infrastructure.
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