Boulevard Construction Continues With Three Mixed Use Buildings Offering Retail, Residential And University Space, Plus New Hotel Planned
  Glassboro, New Jersey’s new $300 million Rowan Boulevard revitalization project is entering a new phase of construction in 2010, as the first of five, four-story mixed-use buildings with a total of 40,000 SF of office space, 185,000 SF of retail space, and 307,000 SF of residential space will begin, as well as a new hotel.
  Groundbreaking for the A-1 building is expected in July or early August, 2010.  Plans are for A-1 to offer 22,000 sq. ft of retail space on its ground floor and housing and multipurpose space for Rowan University honors students on its upper floors.  Plans for a major hotel and conference center with more than 100 rooms and a restaurant/banquet facility also continue, with the design phase now beginning and groundbreaking anticipated by mid-summer.  The start of the A-2 and A-3 buildings is planned for the 4th quarter, 2010, with A-2 offering 38,000 sq. ft. of retail space and market rate housing above, and the A-3 building offering 40,000 sq. ft. of retail space plus senior housing, bringing an intergenerational facet to Rowan Boulevard. 
   Rowan Boulevard is expected to attract as many as 60 new retail stores, including a dozen restaurants, boosting the local economy by more than $48 million annually when completed in 2012.  More than 70,000 sq. ft. of retail space already has been reserved in the project, which officially broke ground in March, 2009.
   “Rowan Boulevard is really taking off.  We have a list of interested retailers and restaurants waiting for this phase of construction to get underway,” said Greg Filipek, a principal with Sora Holdings, the designated master redeveloper of Glassboro.  “The boulevard is destined to be a new retail hub for thousands of Rowan University students and hundreds of thousands of residents in Glassboro and the surrounding region.”
   Construction of the boulevard is well underway, with its roadway curbing and basecoat now in place.  In August, 2009, construction was completed on Phase I of new Rowan University student housing for 560 students while construction simultaneously began on a 36,000 sq. ft. Barnes & Noble Collegiate Superstore, the boulevard’s first major retailer, and Phase II of student housing for another 324 students.  Completion of the Phase II student housing is expected in July or early August, and the Barnes & Noble in November, 2010.
   Also last August, construction of a new Rt. 322 Roundabout was completed, providing a safer roadway link between the University main campus and Rowan Boulevard, and in September, spurred by Rowan Boulevard’s development, construction began on the first new business in Glassboro’s Arts & Entertainment District, the Let’s Dance Studio.  The new studio is more than doubling the size of its old facility in a new 14,160 sq. ft. building containing a 2,160 sq. ft. atrium, 11 classrooms and suites, a café and a retail store.
   Being developed in public/private partnership between the Borough of Glassboro, Sora Holdings, of Sewell, NJ and Towson, MD, and Rowan University, the $300 million Rowan Boulevard project is the heart of a downtown revitalization which is forming a new 26-acre, 100-foot wide corridor stretching a third of a mile from the foot of the Rowan University campus to the center of downtown.  The new boulevard will feature broad tree-lined sidewalks, dozens of stores, restaurants featuring café-style sidewalk dining, residential condos and town homes, a new student housing campus, a hotel-conference center, pedestrian plazas and a town square.  There is approximately $70 million committed to construction now underway, with many additional project components in various stages of planning and design preceding funding allocations.
  Sora Holdings, LLC’s private investment in Rowan Boulevard is $300 million, with an additional $3 million for roadway construction funded by NJDOT and Federal sources and a $1 million Rowan University grant provided to the Borough of Glassboro for planning and preconstruction expenses.
  Rowan Boulevard is the cornerstone of a much larger revitalization encompassing a total of 81-acres in several adjoining neighborhoods in Glassboro’s downtown.  Overall, Glassboro’s entire revitalization, including Rowan Boulevard, is expected to feature more than 125 new retail stores with the potential of infusing the local economy with $225 million in annual sales when fully completed.  The revitalized downtown will offer abundant office space, new restaurants and a public promenade lined with outdoor dining, hundreds of new town home and condo residences, cultural attractions and a new performing arts center offering a year-round repertoire of theater, music, dance, film and comedy performances on stage.
  “Rowan Boulevard’s mix of uses forms distinct, walkable areas, creating a live-work-play environment that will be mutually enjoyed by office workers, shoppers, residents, students and visitors,” said Tom Fore, Sora Holdings’ other principal partner.  “Each of the adjoining neighborhoods surrounding the boulevard complement one another and offer attractions all their own.  It’s an extremely enjoyable environment, one that makes you look forward to being there, and one that offers a very convenient and appealing lifestyle for its residents.”
  Despite the nation’s continued weak economic climate, Rowan Boulevard is forging ahead on schedule and funding is in hand.  The key to its success is strategic development based upon facts that reflect the best, sustainable interests of prospective businesses and the host community.  The planning process required eight years and conducting a comprehensive study analyzing Glassboro’s market to determine specific, viable strategies.  More than 100 types of retail operations were analyzed, which included surveying residents, businesses, property owners, elected officials and a virtually ignored market of students and staff on the campus of Rowan University, bordering downtown.  The study revealed that student discretionary spending was $18.3 million annually, of which only 18 percent was being captured by Glassboro’s downtown businesses, and that there was a glaring absence of specific stores and products desired — and needed — by Glassboro’s residential and workforce population base.
  “The plan’s foundation is that revitalizing downtown into a true ‘college town’ will have a positive impact on Rowan University enrollments, and that the college students’ spending power will benefit downtown businesses,” said Glassboro Mayor Leo McCabe.  “But it’s much more than a college town.  It is a multifaceted, intergenerational development bringing life and excitement back to downtown, and making Glassboro a must-visit destination.”
  According to borough councilpersons Ed Milandro and Ingres Simpson, along with the business and cultural facets gained by the revitalization, the increased tax revenues and jobs created by the development are invaluable to the community, especially in this period of national economic decline.  Rowan Boulevard is expected to generate $1.2 million in new property taxes, 400 temporary construction jobs and more than 700 new permanent jobs.
   As envisioned by Filipek, Fore and the city fathers, Rowan Boulevard will be brimming not just with new retailers, but with the people who are bringing it alive, establishing a vibrant social and cultural identity with a feeling of community and interactivity among everyone who lives, works, studies and visits there.  For information on the Rowan Boulevard project, contact Sora Holdings, LLC, at (856) 589-8371 or on the web at www.soraholdings.com.