LIA News
The LIA Membership Meeting on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at 8 a.m., will be an in-person meeting at the Linden Public Library, 31 E. Henry Street, Linden, NJ 07036. Our guest speaker will be Mohammad “Mo” Tariq, Manager, A&M Industrial, who will be discussing managing Inventories, benefits of Vendor Management Inventory, and other operations tools and topics.
MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING OF THE
LINDEN INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION
A meeting of the Linden Industrial Association was held on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, at 8:00 a.m., at the Linden Public Library, pursuant to written notice thereof duly sent to all members in accordance with the provisions of the Bylaws of the Association. The following were present:
Honorable Mayor Derek Armstead City of Linden
Lisa Barra Phillips 66
Kevin Brady Deputy Chief, Linden Fire Department
Anthony Carter A&M Industrial
Maria Castanheira Northfield Bank
Azariah Clifton Infineum
Anthony Drejaj Linden Public Schools, CTE Coordinator
James K. Estabrook, Esq. Secretary, Linden Industrial Association
David Hart Chief of Police, Linden Police Department
Sandra Jackson Office of the Mayor, City of Linden
Michael Janko Pennoni
Erik Larsen Vice President, Commercial Lending, Northfield Bank, GUEST SPEAKER
June Lazaro Primerica
Jack Lennox Renova Environmental
Alex Lospinoso LEDC, City of Linden
Janet Miller Cox Printers & Digital Media
Jared Stadlin Linden Warehouse & Distribution
Sean Wessel Linden Generating Station
Our special thanks to Maria Castanheira and Northfield Bank for their continued support of the Linden Industrial Association in sponsoring today’s meeting. A motion was duly made and seconded to approve the minutes of the membership meeting on January 21, 2025. The motion was unanimously passed.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
President’s Report. President Janet Miller reported that her business and other businesses in the City of Linden were concerned about proposed tariffs announced by the current Administration. They create a great deal of uncertainty in how to source supplies and raw materials on a going forward basis.
Program. President Janet Miller was pleased to introduce guest speaker Erik Larsen, Senior Vice President, Commercial Lending, Northfield Bank. Mr. Larsen reported that earlier this year, everyone was looking at the prime rate as to its impact on commercial lending. That was short term thinking. The prime rate, however, is not interrelated with commercial rates. Commercial rates and mortgage rates are tied to the Treasury 10-year bill. That is a longer-term future thinking by the banking world when approving commercial loans.
The major concern now in commercial financing is immediately available funds. Businesses are looking to get lines of credit to buy inventory or cover payroll. It is clear businesses are approaching Northfield Bank in order to buy extra inventory to get ahead of the threatened tariffs.
One noticeable item was that Covid drove interest rates down for a substantial period of time and major businesses were used to those lower interest rates. Currently rates are generally at 6.25% and that is normal when viewing commercial lending over a lengthy period of time; the rates during Covid were an abnormality.
One bit of advice that Mr. Larsen provided to the members was to get your professionals in early: your lawyer, your accountant and your banker. If the business is developing a new plan on how to move forward either by way of structure, inventory, or investment, you do not want to make your company un-lendable by being tax adverse. You need to make sure that you can prove that you are able to satisfy the debt. The primary concern of a commercial lender is cash-flow; can the business pay its debt? The general rule of the road is that cash flow has to be 1.25 times the debt payment. In doing that calculation, earnings and depreciation are added back in. The only areas that most banks will not lend to will be for cannabis or gambling. They are not too intimidated by environmental issues as any lender will have an escrow to cover any possible environmental conditions in the transaction between the buyer and the seller. Those parties will have to fund all environmental issues out of pocket, the lender will hold an escrow to make sure there is money in the transaction in case there is an issue.
At the moment, banks are lending, the doors are open, and there is financing available.
Environmental Health and Safety. No Report.
Government and Community Relations. Alex Lospinoso, LEDC, reported that the Planning Board had approved a new warehouse off of Route 1 and 9. It will be a facility to warehouse cannabis. Although at first blush that may not appear to be an attractive tenant for the City, 2% of the revenue that flows through the property will go back to the City. That is in addition to the real property taxes. The operations are not retail, they are solely for warehousing.
At the corner of West Elizabeth Avenue and Wood Avenue, they are putting up a significant new retail and apartment complex at the cost of $140 million. It will be an all-concrete structure and it will be the most expensive property in Union County. The developer expects to open within one year. There will be 334 residential units and 13,000 square feet of retail at the street level. The Holiday Inn Express is to open in March subject to PSE&G providing power.
The City of Linden did get press coverage with respect to its dispute with the State of New Jersey on the mandated 787 affordable housing units. Under the State’s proposal, the housing units were to be placed on wetlands, the DPW garage, and the City landfill. The City is responding to that request with a true account of available developable land for low-income housing.
Legacy Square continues to fill its available space with Blaze Pizza, Dave’s Hot Chicken, and a car wash. A new Wawa is opening at Park Avenue at Route 1 and 9 along with a Qdoba and Popeyes Chicken. At the old Adelia’s property, a BB.Q Chicken is being built and should be open by May, 2025.
On behalf of the Mayor’s Office, Sandra Jackson reported that May 17, 2025 is the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of the City of Linden. The City has lots of events planned that will be posted to a dedicated website. The City will be starting the outdoor concerts on June 3rd, every Tuesday night at 7pm at Bauer Park. The City is looking for sponsors for Project Graduation. This event, scheduled for June 24th, has been going on for 30 years; it keeps graduates from partying in an unsupervised and irresponsible manner. They require about $250,000 every year to run the event.
Linden Police Department. Chief Hart provided his crime statistics for January, 2025. As reported before, violent crimes continue to trend down. There were 8 vehicles stolen, surprisingly all Honda Accords. Over 3,000 parking tickets were issued. There were over 6,000 calls for assistance in the month of January alone. The Police Department has been seeing an increase in firearm permit requests; much greater than they have seen in prior years. February 11th was Crossing Guard Appreciation Day. There at 60 in the City and they provide a valuable service. Chief Hart, in public outreach, has spoken to the Jewish Community and representatives of Merck Global Security. Merck is a major security site with around 7,000 employees. Half the property in the City of Linden and half in the City of Rahway.
Linden Fire Department. Deputy Chief Kevin Brady reported that Friday, February, 21st there would be a promotion ceremony for two recruits. The Fire Department was giving out his Valor Awards. It held a blood drive and was able to collect 25 pints of blood. Training continues with an EMT refresher completed every three years. One third of the force was finished this year. They are doing advanced pre-hospital training so a greater level of care can be provided upon reaching a victim and before the hospital. Deputy Chief Brady reported that there will be additions to the Fire Department’s fleet of vehicles. The wait time currently is tremendous: 36 months during Covid, but luckily during the first week of April, the Fire Department is expecting a new ladder truck. Two new ambulances are to arrive by the beginning of the summer.
Linden Public Schools. Anthony Drejaj, CTE Coordinator, Linden Public Schools reported that all new equipment for TV and graphic design has been installed. Staff if now being trained on the use of the new technologies. The Cosmetology classroom is being renovated.
Membership. No Report.
There being no further matters, the meeting was adjourned. The next membership meeting will be held on March 18, 2025.