The redevelopment of Money Island, New Jersey, will take plenty of professional help, construction materials, equipment and lots of money. Right now we are a blank canvas, the stripped down sleepy seafood landing port that has the potential to be a regional force in sustainable aquaculture in coming decades. With removal of the former residences, and more home demolitions likely over the next couple of years, the remaining tiny marina community and working waterfront are now just positioning with the next generation of users to build a sustainable future. We are pulling support from a range of sources: private aquaculture investors, government, people with recreation/tourism business interests and local business people making in-kind contributions of time and materials. Educational institutions and nonprofits continue to play a major role in our current activities but, so far, are not involved financially.
The legal format and operational plan that works best here is to form a series of limited partnerships for each project as it develops and then offer the stakeholders the option to convert to qualified small business stock if they want to stay for the long term. This effectively creates a community capital fund by pooling the resources of different stakeholders with widely different interests. The first stage typically offers a fast up-front tax shelter. The second format offers long term tax-free capital gains. Nonprofit and government stakeholders have their own well-defined requirements and goals. We are especially excited about the opportunity to offer local small business people the opportunity to be equity stakeholders here based on a contribution of material, work or equipment.
We plan to host a series of meetings soon that will be open to the public to discuss progress
, upcoming projects and opportunities to get involved. Meanwhile, contact Tony to learn more about the progress.
*Guns of course are a sensitive topic and already a reader questioned my choice of the title phrase and some may not be familiar with the origin of the pop culture phrase. If you actually consider the narcissistic context that Warren Zevon coined the famous phrase in his lyrics
, it is antithetical to this use and most contemporary uses of “lawyers, guns and money”, especially by environmentalists and lawyers. I intended the word “guns” as metaphorical for “equipment” as was integral to the meaning of this post. But I do like a the brashness and tone of the current generation of the young environmentalists this week with a revolutionary spirit who do not agree to do things the docile compliant ways of the past. I’m not saying they should take up guns per se, but maybe Greenpeace-style aggressive tactics are not too radical on a longer term perspective.
