While New Jersey lawmakers are increasingly concerned about foreign land ownership, which could impact national security and food resources, Hoboken-based Balcony has developed mTrace, an AI-powered system designed to enhance threat detection of foreign land ownership.
It can be used to identify, investigate and thwart covert adversary land acquisition before it becomes a national security risk.
In May 2025, Bergen County partnered with Balcony in a five-year agreement to digitize and secure 370,000 property deeds, totaling roughly $240 billion in real estate value. The project aimed to modernize public records across all 70 municipalities in New Jersey’s most populous county.
Recent proposals in the N.J. legislature, which include Senate bills S-1702 and S-316), target foreign ownership of agricultural or horticultural land and woodlands. The bills aim to restrict or prohibit foreign ownership of real property, especially farmland or land owned by foreign governments or associated persons.
mTrace transforms fragmented land records into actionable intelligence by:
- Converting unstructured filings into real-time, parcel-linked data
- Exposing hidden beneficial owners through AI-driven entity resolution
- Screening high-risk entities
- Monitoring land near critical infrastructure with automated surveillance zones
- Delivering tamper-evident audit trails anchored to a private blockchain, with off-chain case management for secure collaboration and law-enforcement escalation
In 2024, mTrace identified foreign-owned land near F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. Balcony resolved layered LLC ownership, uncovered Chinese ties and generated warrant-ready case files that triggered federal action. New Jersey can benefit from mTrace, as well.
