Cape May County Hires Economic Development Manager

Cape May County Commissioners are continuing their focus on county-wide economic development with the hiring of Joe Molineaux as Economic Development Program Manager. Molineaux brings more than 20 years of experience in the business support and economic development field, using his former work as the director of the Atlantic-Cape May-Cumberland Small Business Development Center and the television, radio, digital and print media to promote South Jersey’s economic and business development. “I am excited about the opportunity to work with our team to sustain, build, and broaden Cape May County’s economy,” Molineaux said in a news release Thursday announcing his hiring. “I look forward to focusing my many years of hard work and experience in providing existing businesses with the tools that they need to grow and providing prospective businesses with the knowledge of all this beautiful area has to offer for them to make the Coastal Shift, calling Cape May County home.” The county’s Economic Development Program will focus on three main areas: business support services, entrepreneurial development, and new business attraction with emphasis on growing the county’s emerging technology and innovation sector. The program will include technical assistance to existing and prospective businesses adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the release. This will involve direct consultation and business counseling sessions, as well as advancing networking opportunities to connect business owners to the resources needed to sustain and grow their businesses, including government, educational, and financial assistance programs, the release stated. Initially, the focus will be on aiding businesses with economic recovery from the pandemic, but ultimately this will evolve into the overall objective of helping the county’s economy build sustainability and resiliency with an eye to the future for both existing and future businesses. As relates to technology, a key focus will be to attract new technology-related companies to the county’s Cape May Air + Innovation Port in Lower Township, a site that has seen unprecedented attention and sound investment from the county and the Delaware River and Bay Authority. The county and the DRBA have a valued partnership that has resulted in millions of dollars of facility investment and infrastructure improvements at the site, readying it for a new era of attracting businesses and innovators, particularly those in the technology sector, the release said. Completed just this past spring was the 25,000 square foot “Tech Village” building, now 65 percent leased by technology sector companies. “We are encouraged by the prospect of using Joe’s expertise to aid in our collective efforts to attract technology-related and other businesses to the Air + Innovation Port to expand the opportunities for high-paying year-round employment,” said Cape May County Commissioner Will Morey, who oversees economic development for the county. Morey continued, “More and more, we are seeing business owners’ interest in moving in sync with a phenomenon we characterize as a ‘Coastal Shift’. People taking advantage of the unparalleled quality of life that Cape May County has to offer and making it a year-round home for both their families and their businesses.” Anyone interested in learning more about the services offered by the Economic Development Program are encouraged to call Molineaux at the County Planning Department at (609) 465-1085. Information can also be found on the county website at  https://www.capemaycountynj.gov/.