NJT RiverLINE Transit-Oriented Development Opportunity Assessment

New Jersey Transit (NJT) is the nation’s third-largest provider of bus, rail and light rail transit, with a service area of 5,325 miles. NJT operates a light rail line, the RiverLINE, that connects Camden to Trenton. In 2019, RiverLINE was experiencing a decrease in ridership, and NJT wanted to understand methods to promote ridership growth. NJT also wanted to monetize real estate assets to provide an additional revenue stream.

MCFA was hired to provide professional services support in the furtherance of transit-oriented development initiatives for its RiverLINE real property assets. Project deliverables included a real property portfolio review, development sites/planning concepts, workshops with NJT staff and opportunity identification, procurement and implementation strategies, industry outreach, and preparation, marketing, and issuance of a Request For Expression of Interests from developers to maximize and engage a pool of potential developers. MCFA partnered with NJT staff and brought industry relationships and best practice experience in public/private partnership development to create a range of asset capitalization options and site development opportunities for NJT’s consideration and execution.

• Review of Previous Studies and Documents – Reviewed of Agency real property documentation, capital plan, ridership data, and other relevant information necessary to prepare strategic planning documents to be presented to NJT.
• Development Opportunities – Prepared RiverLINE Development Opportunities planning documents to show existing real property assets along the RiverLINE which included regional context, site-specific information and data, and potential development scenarios. This information was presented to NJT staff as a Workshop to help Agency stakeholders develop its procurement strategy.
• Agency Support – Provided procurement support to the Agency, including planning and hosting a project opportunity Industry Day, developing a Request for Expression of Interest with evaluation factors, and performing proposal review and evaluation support to the NJT procurement team.
• Stakeholder Outreach Plan – Developed a stakeholder outreach plan to market the NJT development opportunities to garner local community support and industry interest. Stakeholder outreach included the City of Camden, Rutgers-Camden, and Coopers’ Ferry Partnership as the development opportunities included the Walter Rand Transportation Center, the southern terminus to the RiverLINE.