$70 Million Campus Town Project Breaks Ground at The College of New Jersey

by Katie Sloan

Ewing, N.J. — The project will add 446 beds and a large retail presence to the campus.

Campus Town will open in 2015.Ewing, N.J. — Construction is underway on the mixed-use Campus Town project at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie attended the groundbreaking on Sept. 27 to call attention to this development that will bring retail, restaurants and student housing to the area.

The seven buildings that make up the complex will be built on 12 acres on the TCNJ campus by PRC Campus Centers, LLC, a PRC Group company. The project will add 446 additional student beds to the TCNJ housing options, and the development also includes 80,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space, with Barnes & Noble as the anchor tenant in a 14,000-square-foot store. Leasing is underway with other tenants, including a yogurt shop, sushi restaurant, convenience store and brewpub. “We are still looking for other interested retailers that will benefit the community as well as the campus,” says Greg Lentine, vice president of the PRC Group and project leader for Campus Town.

The housing will be open to students for the fall 2015 semester. The project is estimated to require an investment of roughly $70 million. The PRC Group, a multi-faceted regional real estate owner, developer and services provider, will assume the financial obligations associated with the project and lead the development of the land. In addition, the company will provide TCNJ annual rent in a ground lease term of 50 years. Capstone On Campus Management will manage the housing.

Here’s some background from the Campus Town website on how this project came together:

In 2009, the New Jersey legislature passed and the governor signed into law the New Jersey Economic Stimulus Act. Among other things, this law amended public higher education status to permit a New Jersey State College to enter into a public-private partnership agreement, subject to requirements and approval of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), enabling private entities to perform on-campus construction projects. As a result, The College of New Jersey reached out to developers to design, finance, operate, maintain and own a new student residence hall and retail stores.

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