Report To The Community 2022

of a piece of the downtown
that its presence would
rejuvenate. So NJPAC was
built on a 12-acre campus —
roughly twice as much land
as its two theaters occupied.
Thanks to Governor Kean’s
insights, serving as an economic
driver for the city and ensuring
that Newark’s downtown
would be bustling — days,
nights and weekends —
have always explicitly been
part of NJPAC’s mission.
And with room to grow, the
Arts Center has been able to
pursue that part of its mandate
in all kinds of creative ways.
The first was the building of
the gleaming One Theater
Square, across Center Street
from the Arts Center — the first
market-rate residential tower to
be built in Newark in decades.
When it opened in 2018, it was
an immediate success. Today,
the building operates at nearly
100% of rental capacity.
“That was the proof-point
for us,” says John Schreiber,
NJPAC’s President and CEO.
“It was our ‘If we build it,
they will come’ moment.”
After One Theater Square
brought hundreds of new
residents into the Arts Center’s
corner of the city, NJPAC’s
leadership, with the guidance
of colleagues at Prudential
Financial, worked with RePlace
Urban Studio to develop
a masterplan for the most
effective and impactful use of
the rest of the campus’ land.
“And through that process, we
took a future that was inchoate
and aspirational and made it
into a concrete masterplan for
NJPAC’s future,” says Schreiber.
The execution of NJPAC’s
full-campus masterplan is now
underway, with multiple real
estate development projects
that will transform both the Arts
Center’s surroundings, and the
city’s downtown, in advanced
stages of preparation.
Groundbreakings for
several projects are slated
for 2023 — and by the end
of 2026, the Arts Center’s
campus and surroundings
will have undergone a
metamorphosis, welcoming
“We’re
reimagining
what Newark
can be,
delivering ways
for Newark
to grow and
prosper
over the next
generation,
through the
arts — and what
could be more
useful, more
exciting, than
that?”
– John Schreiber
more than a thousand new
residents, more cultural spaces,
a new arts education and
community center and more.
The redevelopment will
include the replacement of
some of the dozens of miles of
streetscape the city has lost
over the past 50 years, and the
wholesale creation of a new
neighborhood, deliberately
designed to be welcoming,
inviting and a perfect fit
for Newark’s downtown.
One parcel of the Arts Center’s
land — currently Parking
Lot A — will feature several
mixed-use buildings with
350 residential rental units
(20% of them affordable
housing), as well as more
than 15 for-sale townhomes.
They’ll spread out along an
extension of Mulberry Street
that reaches across NJPAC’s
campus to Rector Street, which
will be designed to allow
pedestrians, bicyclists and
cars to safely share the road.
A new entryway to the Arts
Center will be constructed on
its eastern facade, allowing
corporate and social events
to be held at the same time
as major concerts, with each
event in its own space.
And Chambers Plaza,
the outdoor entryway to
NJPAC, will be reimagined
and rearchitected by the
New York-based Future
Green Studios, to create
a green and shady space
that can be programmed
and used by residents and
visitors all year long.
“In success, it will be a place
where there’s yoga classes in
the morning, concert afterparties
at night and pop-up
vendors and food trucks in
the afternoon — and always,
it’ll be a place where our new
residents can relax, have a
cup of coffee, meet up with
friends,” says Tim Lizura,
Senior Vice President, Real
Estate and Capital Projects.
Across the street on Center
and Mulberry Streets, the
Cooperman Family Arts
Education and Community
Center will house NJPAC’s
extensive arts education
programs for young people,
as well as new educational
programs in technical theater
and a pair of professional
studio rehearsal spaces
where new performances
can be created.
In five years, the Arts Center
will have new neighbors living
right on its campus — and
more people visiting shops
and restaurants, working in
the studios or going to events
at the Cooperman Center.
“We’re really building a
community, out of whole
cloth, that is authentic to
Newark,” says Lizura.
And the Arts Center’s work
as an economic driver
won’t stop at the edge of
its campus. In May of this
year, NJPAC announced
that — in partnership with
the City of Newark and
Great Point Studios, a studio
investment/management
business specializing
in film and television
infrastructure — it was
collaborating in the development
of a new, 350,000-square-foot
film and television studio in the
city’s South Ward. Lionsgate
Newark, named for the global
content producer that will be
in residence at the studio for at
least 10 years, will be built on
the site of the long-empty Seth
Boyden housing development.
The studio will have the
largest sound stages on the
East Coast, and will bring
hundreds of jobs to Newarkers
when it opens in 2024.
“What NJPAC is doing is
creative placemaking at its
best — providing genuine,
equitable opportunities for
Newarkers,” says Schreiber.
“We’re reimagining what
Newark can be, we’re
delivering ways for Newark to
grow and prosper over the next
generation, through the arts —
and what could be more useful,
more exciting, than that?” •
NJPAC’s multiple real estate development projects include (top to bottom):
A new neighborhood along an extension of Mulberry Street, a refurbished
eastern facade, the Cooperman Family Arts Education and Community
Center, and a greener, more community-friendly Chambers Plaza.
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