Page 10 - RE-NJ

8 OCTOBER 2024
THE
BRIEFING
NJPAC BREAKS GROUND ON
$336 MILLION CAMPUS EXPANSION
Construction is set to begin on a
long-awaited expansion of the New
Jersey Performing Arts Center’s
campus in Newark, part of a $336
million project that will bring 350
new apartments, offi ce and retail
space and a 58,000-square-foot arts
education and community center.
The venue’s leaders on Sept. 18
joined public offi cials, donors and
a host of other supporters to break
ground on the development, which
it will build over the next three
years on surface parking lots that
surround the facility. It’s doing so in
tandem with developers LMXD and
MCI Collective, having spent several
years planning the complex project
while securing a long list of public
and private fi nancing sources.
NJPAC also expects to revitalize
the existing 100,000-square-foot
performing arts center building on
Center Street, which opened in 1997
just west of McCarter Highway.
“This arts center
is honored to
be the stewards
of this land and
to be positive
contributors to
our community,”
NJPAC CEO
John Schreiber
said, later adding: “Today, we
make good on our promise to
be an effective, useful, engaged
and intentional anchor cultural
institution grounded right here
and committed to Newark in its
ongoing equitable and inclusive
development.”
Slated for completion in fall 2027,
the new campus will feature the
350-unit ArtSide building designed by
Skidmore Owings & Merrill, which
will include 70 units reserved as
affordable housing. Among the new
commercial and cultural spaces will
be a home for Newark’s acclaimed
jazz public radio station, WBGO, as
well as an extension of Mulberry
Street on what is now NJPAC’s
Parking Lot A.
The 58,000-square-foot Cooperman
Family Arts Education and
Community Center, designed by
architectural fi rm Weiss/Manfredi,
will be built on Parking Lot C,
according to a news release. Plans
also call for an update of Chambers
Plaza at the front of the venue, with
landscape architecture studio Future
Green spearheading the redesign,
and the addition of a new Essex
County Green to create a four-season
urban park.
John Schreiber
The new uses will join One Theater
Square, the 22-story, 245-unit
residential tower that opened across
Center Street in 2018. That marked
the fi rst piece of NJPAC’s long-stated
goal of creating a campus beyond its
performance stages.
“We have a two-sided coin of passion
that’s represented here today,” said
Gov. Phil Murphy, who headlined
the slate of
public offi cials
on hand for the
groundbreaking.
“As Newark
goes, so goes
the state of New
Jersey. And
under the mayor
Gov. Phil Murphy
and city council
president’s leadership, Newark is on
fi re. And today is a great example of
that.”
Schreiber, Murphy and other
speakers highlighted the extensive
assortment of public and private
funding sources and philanthropy
that are making the project possible.
Not the least of which is the $200
million tax credit that the state
Economic Development Authority
awarded NJPAC earlier this year
under its Aspire program.
NJPAC also highlighted the role of:
• Prudential Financial, which
facilitated the master planning of
the campus redesign and fi nanced
NJPAC’s predevelopment needs
• Liberty Mutual, which committed
to investing across the capital
stack as both an Aspire tax credit
investor and a limited partner
• Citi Community Capital, which
spearheaded construction lending
Rendering courtesy: NJPAC
An expansion of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s campus in Newark will include new rental homes, shops, restaurants,
outdoor gathering spaces and a 58,000-square-foot Cooperman Family Arts Education and Community Center.
and Low-Income Housing Tax
Credit investing for the project
• TD Bank, which provided NJPAC
with a New Market Tax Credit
allocation for the Cooperman
Center construction and a tax-
exempt bond for other campus
improvements
• Essex County Executive Joseph
N. DiVincenzo Jr. and the County
of Essex, which supported the
redesign of campus outdoor
spaces
• Co-development partner Siree
Morris, managing director of MCI
Collective
• The New Jersey Housing and
Mortgage Finance Agency and
Freddie Mac, which provided
permanent loan commitments
• New Jersey Community Capital,
which provided support in New
Market Tax Credits
“There’s only one way a project
like this gets done — and it’s with
a slew of willing partners,” said
Tim Lizura, NJPAC’s executive vice
president of real estate and capital
projects. “And this just might be the
greatest partnership anyone has ever
assembled.”
LMXD partnered with NJPAC
to manage design, approvals
and fi nancing for the project.
Professionals involved in the
development also include Langan,
CSG Law, Windels Marx LLP and
Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Co., as well
as Turner Construction Co. and
Structure Tone, which are building
the ArtSide and Cooperman Center
phases, respectively.
Newark’s OCA Architects will design
renovations of 31 Mulberry St., an
existing building NJPAC recently
acquired adjacent to the site of
the Cooperman Center, the news
release said. The building will house
additional spaces for community
gatherings, plus educational and
offi ce spaces for the center, while
NJPAC’s eastern façade, certain
interiors and loading docks will also
be redesigned.
Philanthropic support from major
donors who contributed to the
arts center’s $244 million capital
campaign, completed in December
2024, also helped fi nance the project.
Notably, Leon and Toby Cooperman
and the Cooperman family made a
foundational gift to the construction
of the Cooperman Center, which will
headquarter NJPAC’s arts education,
arts and wellbeing and community
engagement initiatives.