Loans 75% Below Market Rate!

To encourage development in urban areas, the Environmental Financing Program (EIFP) offers a special low-rate loan for qualifying Smart Growth projects. The current rate is only 1.05%!

Under a regular EIFP loan, 50 percent of the loan is from zero interest State Revolving Funds and 50 percent is funded through a market-rate Trust loan (50/50 split). By combining the funds, program participants' loans are half the market rate.

Smart Growth loans receive 75 percent of project costs from zero interest State Revolving Funds and 25 percent from a market-rate Trust loan (75/25 split). This results in a loan that is one quarter the market rate. For example, at the Trust's last sale, bonds sold for 4.19%. Under the regular 50/50 split program, borrowers paid 2.10%. Under the Smart Growth 75/25 split program, borrowers paid 1.05%.

The following projects qualify for this special low-interest rate program:

1. Clean water and drinking water infrastructure projects serving an approved Urban Center (which includes Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Camden, Elizabeth, Jersey City, New Brunswick, Newark, Paterson, and Trenton) or an approved Urban Complex (which includes the Hudson County Urban Complex encompassing the Jersey City Urban Center and Development Activity Areas in Bayonne, East Newark, Guttenberg, Harrison, Hoboken, Jersey City, Kearny, North Bergen, Secaucus, Union, Weehawken and West New York),

2. Projects that eliminate or improve combined sewer overflows, and

3. Wastewater and/or stormwater infrastructure projects to serve increased populations in Transit Villages designated as such by the inter-agency Transit Village Task Force, and

4. Projects that involve the repair and/or replacement of individual septic systems through a Septic Management District.

If you would like to learn more about Smart Growth Financing, send us an email or call (609) 219-8600.