PC: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Photo courtesy of NJPAC.
Newark, NJ — The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) broke ground on the $336 million redevelopment of its 12-acre campus, a transformative project that will bring to downtown Newark hundreds of new residences, along with shops, restaurants, new outdoor gathering spaces and a unique education and community center with professional rehearsal spaces.
The reimagined campus, scheduled to be completed in Fall 2027, will include ArtSide, a mixed-use, mixed-income residential complex developed by NJPAC, LMXD, and MCI Collective, and planned and designed by architectural firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill. ArtSide will consist of 350 rental units (20% of which will be affordable housing) plus retail and cultural spaces — among them a new home for Newark’s 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 s/f Cooperman Family Arts Education and Community Center, designed by the architectural firm of Weiss/Manfredi, will be built on Parking Lot C and will serve as a dynamic hub where students, community partners, and artists can gather, learn, and create.
A dynamic redesign of NJPAC’s front yard, Chambers Plaza, and the addition of a new space, Essex County Green, to the Arts Center’s campus, will create a four-season urban park. Landscape architecture studio Future Green created the design for the new Chambers Plaza.
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 building will house additional spaces for community gatherings, plus educational and office spaces for the Arts Center. NJPAC’s eastern façade, certain interiors and loading docks will also be redesigned.
“NJPAC’s campus redevelopment is more than a construction project; it’s a powerful investment in Newark’s communities and future,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “This initiative will not only provide more housing and commercial spaces but also create vibrant cultural and educational opportunities that will enrich the lives of Newark residents for generations to come. I’m proud to support this transformative project that embodies the spirit of creativity and inclusivity that is at the heart of our state.”
Among the partners who have joined in the planning and development of NJPAC’s campus redevelopment are the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), which granted the project’s $200M tax credits under the Transformative Aspire Program; 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 and low-income housing tax credit investing for the project; TD Bank, which provided NJPAC with New Markets Tax Credit allocation for the Cooperman Center construction and a tax-exempt bond for other campus improvements.
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