P.L. 2023, c. 290 made various changes to manufacturing and retail liquor license laws. One of the provisions of the new law requires that inactive licenses be actively used by the license holder, transferred by the license holder in a private sale to a transferee who will actively use the license or permit the municipality with an inactive license to transfer the license to a contiguous municipality as part of an economic redevelopment plan or revitalization area or may be issued as a new retail consumption license for public sale for a premise in the municipality.
The law requires that the Director of the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) to divide the inactive retail consumption licenses into quartiles based on total length of time that the license has been inactive, with the inactive licenses with the shortest period of inactivity to be transferred within four years. The Division of ABC has released the list of inactive liquor licenses available for transfer. This list is known as the Quartile List.
The list includes a total of 1,165 inactive licenses as follows:
- 1st Quartile list – 22 licenses, which are licenses issued between 1993/1994 to 2000/2001
- 2nd Quartile list – 155 licenses, which are licenses issued between 2001/ 2002 to 2008/ 2009
- 3rd Quartile list – 372 licenses, which are licenses issued between 2009/2010 and 2016/2017
- 4TH Quartile list – 616 licenses, which are licenses issued between 20017/2018 to 2023/ 2024
We suggest you review this list with your municipal clerk, manager, and attorney.
Contact: Lori Buckelew, Deputy Executive Director, lbuckelew@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x112.