The $150 million project will include residential units, office space, a parking garage and a signature Rutgers bookstore.
When Christopher Paladino received a phone call from Richard McCormick back in 2002, he first thought it was his former Rutgers history professor Richard P. McCormick who had taught him 25 years earlier.
But the president of the New Brunswick Development Corporation (DEVCO) soon realized it was McCormick’s son, Richard L. McCormick, calling on his first day as president of Rutgers to talk about redevelopment opportunities.
“He said ‘Chris, I am driving around campus and there is so much we can do together – what’s good for New Brunswick is good for Rutgers,’” Paladino said.
It was the first of what would become many conversations about redevelopment that helped lay the foundation for several projects, including the new Gateway Transit Village that the two broke ground on in June.
The $150 million project located between the New Brunswick Train Station and College Avenue will include residential units, office space, a parking garage and a signature Rutgers bookstore operated by Barnes & Noble. Construction is expected to begin early next year and the majority of the project will be finished by 2012.
It is designed to connect the train station, which is used by more than 6,000 passengers each day, directly to the Rutgers campus through an expansive walkway and public space.
“Aptly named, the building will truly be a gateway,” McCormick said at the groundbreaking attended by Governor Jon S. Corzine, New Brunswick Mayor James M. Cahill, and other dignitaries. “For people arriving in New Brunswick, or for those who will call it home, this will be a wonderful gateway to the city, and to Rutgers.”
Corzine said the project is a great example of successful urban redevelopment. Over the next three years, it is expected to generate about 3,000 jobs, including 900 construction positions.
The new 600,000-plus-square-foot project will have a 50,000-square-foot Barnes & Noble University Bookstore with additional retail space on the street.
Max Roberts, president of Barnes & Noble College Bookstores, said the New Brunswick community and the campus will benefit from each other’s participation in the collegiate superstore.
“For Rutgers, this is a dream come true – the world-class academic bookstore that we never had but that we need and deserve as a premier public research university,” McCormick said.
DEVCO, a tax-exempt urban development company created in the mid-1970s, is developing the project.