UEZ GRANT AWARDED TO SUPPORT BUSINESS INCUBATOR GROWTH AT RUTGERS CAMDEN TECHNOLOGY CAMPUS

CAMDEN, N.J. (September 14, 2006) – The New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zone Administration has awarded a $325,000 grant to the Rutgers Camden Technology Campus, Inc., to support the growth of new businesses in the Rutgers-Camden Business Incubator.

The grant will be used to construct high-quality incubator office space for new businesses in the Rutgers-Camden Business Incubator, with an emphasis on maintaining confidentiality for clients as they develop their products and services. The business space will be housed within the Waterfront Technology Center at Camden, a state-of-the-art facility where the Rutgers incubator will become the primary tenant later this year.

“This will allow Rutgers to provide the absolute best space for business incubation in the region,” says Peter Gold, CEO of the Rutgers Camden Technology Campus, which has approximately 35 on-site and 15 virtual client tenant businesses that generate more than 155 jobs in the City of Camden. The combined payroll of these jobs is approximately $6 million. Four RCTC companies have received private sector capital and other investment, and now are employers located in the metro Philadelphia region.

The RCTC currently is located in a facility on the Virtua-Camden campus.

“The progress and success to date of the Waterfront Technology Center can be attributed to the innovative partnership between the State of New Jersey, the City of Camden, and our state research universities,” says Caren S. Franzini, chief executive officer of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA), the agency which constructed, owns and manages the WTCC, located in the Camden Innovation Zone. “This additional funding resource through the UEZ initiative reflects the State’s strong commitment to supporting technology research in collaboration with Rutgers University and other research institutions in Camden.”

Franzini noted that such collaboration is a key element of Governor Jon S. Corzine’s recently announced Strategic Economic Growth Plan, which aims to support technology growth in New Jersey by leveraging state and business partnerships with New Jersey’s research universities.