Newark breaks ground on $336M arts campus with apartments, retail, and park space
Cooperman Family Arts Education and Community Center. View north on Mulberry Street. Rendering © Weiss/Manfredi | Courtesy of NJPAC
A project to transform an area of downtown Newark into a walkable and livable destination centered around a cultural institution is officially underway. The nonprofit arts organization New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) this week broke ground on a $336 million redevelopment of its 12-acre campus, which includes hundreds of new apartments, retail, cultural spaces, community facilities, and a new urban park. The reimagined site is expected to be completed in the fall of 2027.
“Newark is a city rich in history and possibilities, and NJPAC’s role as an active, engaged and productive anchor cultural institution in its future is an extraordinarily exciting one,” NJPAC CEO John Schreiber said. “We’re grateful beyond measure to the remarkable coalition of partners, both public and private, who have collaborated with us to make this new neighborhood an exciting reality.”
Developed by NJPAC, LMXD, and MCI Collective and designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, ArtSide includes 17 new residential buildings of different scales, including 15 townhomes, a high-rise tower, and a mid-rise building, for a total of 350 new rental homes.
ArtSide, which will replace an NJPAC parking lot, will offer 70 affordable housing units, in addition to office and retail space, as well as a home for Newark’s jazz public radio station WBGO and an extended Mulberry Street.
The Cooperman Family Arts Education and Community Center, designed by Weiss/Manfredi, will replace parking lot C and provide a hub “where students, community partners, and artists can gather, learn, and create,” according to a press release. The three-story facility will host NJPAC’s arts and education programs, free performing arts events for the community, and rehearsal space for artists.
OCA Architects will renovate an existing building at 31 Mulberry Street, set to host community gatherings and office spaces for the arts center.
Connecting it all is Chambers Plaza, the “front lawn” of NJPAC being redesigned as a year-round park space by Brooklyn-based landscape architects Future Green. The new park includes Essex County Green with a rain garden, upgraded lighting, and new seating, and will host performances, markets, and classes every season. The revamp of the plaza kicked off in April and marks the first piece of the campus-wide development.
In February, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority awarded NJPAC nearly $200 million in tax credits to support the redevelopment, the largest financial support the center had ever received, accelerating the project’s timeline.
“The streets of Newark have always been steeped in the arts. This is a city where jazz and hip hop are in the breeze, and every wall without a mural is just a canvas no one’s yet claimed,” Mayor Ras J. Baraka said. “The new neighborhood around NJPAC will fully embrace that dynamic spirit, bringing more housing, stores and gathering places to our already lively downtown. And one of the highest notes of all will be the new headquarters for our city’s iconic jazz station, WBGO.”
In 2018, NJPAC opened One Theater Square, a market-rate high-rise residential tower across from the institution on Center Street. In 2022, the organization partnered with the production company Lionsgate to build a film studio on the former site of an abandoned public housing complex.
RELATED:
