Jaymie Santiago, President & CEO, New Brunswick Tomorrow

Since the 1970s, the city of New Brunswick has been focused on revitalization, namely through new investment, sharing resources, and creating a community-focused culture. At the helm of ushering the city’s ongoing improvements is New Brunswick Tomorrow. In an interview with Invest:, Jayme Santiago, president and CEO of New Brunswick Tomorrow, reflects on 50 years of community engagement, where the city is currently, and its future. “Our mission is to improve the quality of life for anyone who calls New Brunswick home,” Santiago said.

What are some recent organizational milestones for New Brunswick Tomorrow?

We recently celebrated our 50th anniversary. Our mission is to improve the quality of life for anyone who calls New Brunswick home. New Brunswick sits right at the center of Middlesex County as the county seat. Over the past 50 years, the city has experienced a lot of revitalization and investments, and many businesses have chosen to call New Brunswick home. Our organization focuses on the people who live in this city. We are ensuring that our residents have access to high-wage jobs and that they benefit from the investment and revitalization happening locally. Our motto is that if there are issues in the community, New Brunswick Tomorrow is the organization that will make a difference. This is the place to see the change that our community wants. 

We want to help wherever we can, whether it is improving neighborhood safety or providing youth development programs. We want to make sure that we can help our local youth stay in school and graduate so that they can be well on their way to a college education or a high-paying job. Additionally, the city of New Brunswick is considered a healthcare city due to all the health-related partnerships that we have. We are home to different world-class healthcare facilities and hospitals. Through the different partnerships, we look at how we can increase access to healthcare for families. We want to do this as a community. We have a lot of highlights, stories, and successes over the past 50 years, and we want to make sure we celebrate this. 

What challenges is the organization facing?

New Brunswick is a port of entry city with a history of immigrants coming into the city. A challenge in the current economic landscape is the ongoing activity against immigration. Whether that is ICE enforcement or stricter rules around what it means to live as an immigrant in our community, it has posed a challenge for our residents. As an organization, we have wrapped our arms around the immigrant community to help them navigate the political changes that are happening. We want to protect our immigrant neighbors as best as we can. I believe this tension is temporary and that New Brunswick will continue to thrive and grow. There is a lot of work we are doing with help from the local government and sister organizations, focused on uplifting our community. 

What key economic development wins has the city seen in recent years?

As we look around the city, there are several highlights concerning healthcare, with three new healthcare facilities being developed. The city will be the new home to the Rutgers Medical School, known as The HELIX. The second development will be the new home to Bell Labs, a Fortune 500 company. The third development is a new cancer center. This tells us that the revitalization that is happening in the community has been ongoing for the past 50 years. The community is proud to call New Brunswick home as a result. It lifts every standard of living when this kind of development comes to a city. We want to make sure our residents have access to all the resources and jobs that are coming into the city. Everyone does better as a result of this. 

What emerging trends is the organization keeping a close eye on?

The key to success is recognizing that we can go much further with the help of others. As an organization, we excel at bringing leaders, experts, and residents together to speak about ongoing issues. We aim to make a difference. We value people’s perspectives and expertise. We have developed a culture based on a strong sense of community, recognizing that with strong partnerships and diverse expertise, we can better help families meet their goals and guide them through the challenges that they may face. For our organization, having strong partnerships is the bread and butter for creating lasting change.

We are a few years removed from the COVID pandemic. From those challenging years, we learned that communities are more resilient than they think. This community strength was seen during that time. Additionally, we have a business community that is for the community. When people experienced hardships, the business community came in and helped meet their needs. This was seen from large corporations to small business owners. We learned many lessons from that experience, and we continue to bring the business community together every month to speak about improving the community, both from a resident and business perspective. For example, with the FIFA World Cup tournament happening in 2026, we are preparing our business to capitalize on that world-class event. Overall, we want to have the resources and the know-how to make sure our businesses, especially small businesses, can flourish. When businesses flourish, the community flourishes. In the past year, we allocated $300,000 for small business improvements. This is aside from additional dollars acquired through state government programs. We want to focus on the support that small businesses need to be better established. 

What are some efforts taking place to retain affordability in the face of growth?

With any growing city, the cost of living is expected to go up. This is a challenge. However, this past year, as an organization, we broke ground on two homes. This is the first affordable housing project in 15 years that the city has engaged in. We feel it is important to make sure families stay rooted in our city. Since then, we have been working on several more properties related to affordable housing. We aim to remove the barrier to affordability for our local families. Among our efforts to keep housing affordable, we are working with the city to identify abandoned and blighted properties. Through different partnerships, we have been able to finance the acquisition and renovation of these properties. We can use state and local programs to keep costs low for our families. There is also the threat of gentrification. We want to make sure that our families do not get priced out of the city. Many of the projects that have come in have a community benefit contract that ensures the community benefits from these developments.