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Downtown
:: Lower
George Street ::
French Street :: Renaissance
2000
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Downtown
Downtown New Brunswick is one of
New Jersey's most exciting urban centers. Since 1990, over $700
million has been invested in new offices, retail and housing. Downtown
is a corporate HQ location (Johnson & Johnson), cultural center
(State Theater, George Street Playhouse, Crossroads Theater, American
Repertory Ballet, Zimmerli Museum), retail center (George Street
and Kilmer Square) and residential neighborhood (Riverwatch). Rutgers
University and one of the Northeast's major medical campuses border
downtown.
Downtown
New Brunswick is an excellent business location, which offers train
(Amtrak and NJ Transit) and bus (CoachUSA) service to New York and
Philadelphia, access to several nearby interstate highways (NJ Turnpike,
I-287), low cost telecommunications access through Verizon's regional
switching center, and reasonable office rental rates.
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projects in the downtown include: |
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Highlands at Plaza Square |
417
luxury apartment units near the Raritan River |
| The
Metropolitan |
360 luxury apartments near the theater district |
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Heldrich Center |
Corporate conference center, hotel, apartments and retail in the center
of downtown |
| Albany
Plaza II |
70,000 sq. ft. office tower expansion |
| Civic
Square IV |
Conversion of an existing office tower for market-rate and affordable
housing plus renovated office space and renovated court rooms |
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Recently
completed projects include:
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| Liberty
Plaza |
135,000
sq. ft office/retail facility |
| Civic
Square 2 |
180,000
sq. ft. County and City governmental complex |
| Riverwatch |
200
luxury apartments and 33 townhomes priced from $200,000 |
Lower
George Street
Lower George
connects the Douglass College area to downtown New Brunswick. This
neighborhood is being revitalized through a combination of housing
construction and rehabilitation, new retail construction, a new elementary
school and historic preservation activities.
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The
neighborhood is the focus of the city's HOPE VI mixed-income housing
project. HOPE VI will demolish dilapidated high-rise public housing
towers and replace them with townhouses, garden apartments and rehabilitated
apartments on several sites within the same neighborhood. The new
housing will be available to families in a range of income levels,
stretching from public housing families to families seeking market-rate
housing. Additionally, the project will create new neighborhood
retail space along George Street.
The Lord Stirling
elementary school is being vacated and rebuilt in a new location
in the neighborhood. The new school will expand the number of classrooms
and facilities available in the school. The old school will be converted
to affordable senior housing as part of the HOPE VI project.
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The city's Rental Rehab program is also targeted on this neighborhood.
This program provides deferred loans for up to 75% of construction
costs to rehabilitate apartments, which are then rented at rents affordable
to low and moderate income families. In addition to the Rental Rehab
program, the city's four homeowner rehabilitation programs are active
in the neighborhood. |
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French
Street
French
Street is the home of New Brunswick's largest medical campus, the
combined campuses of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and
the University of Medicine and Dentistry's Robert Wood Johnson Medical
School. French Street is also the heart of New Brunswick's thriving
Hispanic community.
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The
Robert Wood Johnson medical campus has been steadily expanding over
the last decade: the UMDNJ Clinical Academic Building (1995), which
houses the State's largest physician's group practice; the Cancer
Institute of New Jersey (1996), one of only 16 nationally-certified
cancer research and treatment facilities in the United States, the
Bristol Myers-Squibb Children's Hospital (2001), New Jersey's only
free-standing hospital devoted to children and The Cancer Hospital
of New Jersey (2001), a 90-room hospital devoted to cancer treatment
and affiliated with the Cancer Institute. Upcoming projects include:
a new home for The Child Health Institute, a nationally recognized
clinical research center for children's diseases and the Children's
Specialized Hospital, which will deal with rehabilitation needs for
children. |
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The New Brunswick
Board of Education capitalized on the proximity of this world-class
medical campus by developing the New Brunswick Health Sciences Technology
High School adjacent to the campus. The Health Sciences Tech H.S.
is New Jersey's only high-school dedicated to specialized training
in the health sciences and with an on-the-job internship program
with a teaching hospital.
The French Street
neighborhood is the target area for the city's Neighborhood Preservation
Program(NPP), a community-based neighborhood revitalization program.
The NPP emphasizes community problem solving through community input.
The program offers services including housing rehabilitation grants,
community clean up projects, public infrastructure improvements
and enhanced code enforcement. A recent project was the award-winning
revitalization of War Memorial Park at the intersection of French
Street and Jersey Avenue.
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French Street's vibrant retail sector will be expanding through the
development of a 75,000 sq. foot shopping center. Nationally-known
retail developer ARC Properties will be developing this property at
the foot of Jersey Avenue. Existing French Street merchants can improve
their businesses with assistance from the city's Façade Improvement
grants and small business loan guarantees. |
Renaissance
2000
Renaissance
2000 is a unique community development that focuses on revitalizing
one neighborhood that spills across the municipal boundary between
New Brunswick and neighboring Franklin. Renaissance 2000 is a planning
and development partnership between New Brunswick, Franklin, First
Baptist CDC, Antioch CDC and New Brunswick Tomorrow.
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A planning process
begun in 1993 developed a community development plan for the neighborhood
in 1995, which has led to the development of several different projects
in the neighborhood, including:
- Construction
of an ALDI supermarket
- Construction
of 19 homes for sale to low and moderate income families
- Development
of the 8-acre A.J. Archibold Park
- Expansion
and modernization of McKinley Elementary School
- Rehabilitation
of a former industrial building for the St. Peter's University
Hospital Family Health Center
- Construction
or rehabilitation of 500,000 sf of light industrial space
- Construction
of sidewalks along Route 27
Upcoming projects
include the rehabilitation of 124 condominium units at Hampton Club,
safety and beautification improvements to Route 27 and additional
light industrial development.
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