Norcross-connected firms’ EDA applications had issues

Cooper University Health Care and three other entities with links to Democratic kingmaker George Norcross were approved for tax incentive awards despite deficiencies with their applications, according to testimony before the Economic Development Authority Task Force Thursday.

Cooper’s application for a tax credit to move into the L3 building in Camden, which was prepared by Parker McCay lawyer Kevin Sheehan, said no jobs were in danger of leaving the state if the firm did not receive an award from the EDA.

When asked what states New Jersey was competing with for Cooper’s business, the hospital system said “TBD.”

The Economic Opportunity Act of 2013, the enabling legislation for the EDA award programs being investigated by the task force, contains special incentives for firms moving jobs to Camden or keeping them there, even if those jobs are not at risk of leaving the state.

But, Cooper later suggested it was considering moving its offices to Philadelphia.

An internal EDA memo drafted shortly after Cooper filed its application on Nov. 7, 2014, said cooper was considering a move out of state.

On Dec. 1, 24 days after the application was filed, a Cooper representative sent an email to the authority saying the firm was touring alternative locations in Philadelphia.

On Dec. 5, the hospital system provided the authority with a letter of intent from a Philadelphia landlord.

Four days later, on Dec. 9, Cooper was awarded a tax incentive worth $40 million over ten years.

To date, the firm has received a little more than $13 million in tax credits, according to EDA staffer David Lawyer, who testified before the task force Thursday.

Lawyer said there was no evidence the EDA underwriter who handled Cooper’s application asked about the apparent deficiencies in the application, though it’s possible conversations that were not recorded took place.

The three other Norcross-linked firms, NFI Industries, Connor Strong & Buckelew and the Michaels Organization, filed applications for tax incentives that Lawyer said ought to have raised questions.

Letters of intent from Philadelphia landlords the three firms, whose applications were also prepared by Sheehan, provided alongside their incentive applications expired before the applications were filed.

NFI and Michaels initially submitted letters of intent for the same address, though the latter also provided another unit.

Instead of renewing the applications, the three firms each filed new letters of intent, in each case for a smaller site.

Connor Strong went from seeking a site that had 153,345 square feet of floor space to one that had 110,000.

NFI’s site size made a smaller drop, from 103,491 square feet to 93,308. Michaels dropped from a minimum of 103,491 square feet to 95,928.

John Boyd, principle of the Boyd Company, a site selection firm, told the committee earlier in the day that a change in square footage on letters of intent is unusual given employees tend to occupy the same amount of space.

Boyd added that it was unusual for firms to split their companies across non-contiguous floors.

Both letters of intent submitted by Connor Strong sought office space that included non-contiguous floors.

There was no evidence to suggest the underwriter responsible for the three applications asked about the changes between the first and second set of letters of intent, Lawyer said, adding that the discrepancies combined raised serious questions regarding the applications.