U.E.Z. Program

The Jersey City
Urban Enterprise Zone Program

Businesses located within the Central Avenue Special Improvement District may qualify for New Jersey’s Urban Enterprise (UEZ) Program. Participants benefit from a number of tax incentives and other financial benefits designed to support businesses and stimulate local economies. Businesses registered in the UEZ Program can charge half the standard state sales tax rate on some purchases and may enjoy tax exemptions on particular goods when they meet specified employment (and other) criteria.

As of July 1, 2011, these benefits are available through the NJ Business Action Center website. Businesses can follow the step-by-step instructions to determine if they qualify for the program (Hint: the entire Central Avenue business district is an Urban Enterprise Zone). If you do qualify, you may complete your registration, reporting, and sales tax payments right from that website.

To learn more, click on the link below:

About the New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zone Program

Over the past several decades New Jersey’s business climate has changed considerably. There was a time when New Jerseyans worked, shopped, and lived in the same neighborhood, and created strong communities with sound local economies. However, the persistence of sprawl, office parks, malls, and “Big Box” retail development has altered New Jersey’s landscape away from traditional neighborhoods and shopping districts. If it was not for the State of New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zone Program (UEZ) many of the State’s urban communities would have suffered the intense urban decay that has plagued other cities across the United States.

Recognizing the financial challenges New Jersey faced in 1983, some of New Jersey’s most visionary elected officials created the UEZ program to revitalize the State’s most distressed urban communities. The program combined the creation of private-sector jobs with targeted public/private investments within these communities to give ailing economies a shot in the arm and a chance at renewed economic growth. Since its inception, thirty-two (32) UEZs have been established in thirty-seven (37) of the State’s most most-populous municipalities including the City of Jersey City. Over the past twenty-eight (28) years the UEZ program has been a key factor in the stabilization the New Jersey’s urban economies and job markets while providing incentives for entrepreneurs and small-business owners across the state to do business in New Jersey’s cities.