130 Business View Magazine - June 2016
the incentives that come along with a transit village
destination,” Taylor says, “in order to promote multi-
modal transportation with less reliance on cars, and
more on bike to and from the rail. We just designated
a developer for a project commonly known as 20/30
Evergreen Street. The site has been vacant for nearly
two decades. A developer has plans to bring mixed-
use retail and residential to the site - which is symbolic
of what’s happening throughout our city.”
In addition to 20/30 Evergreen, Taylor’s agenda for at-
tracting comparable development investments is be-
ginning to bear fruit. “In the last year and a half, or
so, we’ve almost tripled the amount of private capital
being invested in East Orange,” he states. “We’re now
approaching $300 million of private money being in-
vested. We have ground breakings, rehabilitation proj-
ects, and new construction projects in all of our five
wards in the city – which is important because we’re
not just focusing on the downtown area. We’re bring-
ing development to the residential areas of the city, to
the commercial areas of the city, and we’re not leaving
anyone out.” Taylor points to public/private partner-
ships with organizations like La Casa de Don Pedro,
a community based development corporation, that is
helping to build affordably-priced homes in an area of
the city that has been neglected for a long time.
“But not only are we attracting development, we’re in-
vesting our own dollars and resources,” Taylor adds.
“When I took office, the first thing that I reminded my-
self of was what many of our parents teach us, which
is ‘no matter what you have, you’ve got to take care of
what you’ve got.’ Before we can go out and get other
people who want to spend their time or money here,
we should take care of our own backyard, so to speak.
And so, we have worked to incentivize and motivate
our business partners, as well as residential home-
Mayor Lester Taylor
East Orange was the first city in New Jersey
