College Avenue Construction Commences

By Jennifer Bradshaw 

Before the freshmen class at Rutgers graduates, College Avenue is going to have a whole new look.

On Thursday afternoon, Gov. Chris Christie, joined by university president Robert L. Barchi, New Brunswick Development Corporation (DEVCO) president Chris Paladino and New Brunswick Mayor James Cahill thrust shovels into the ground to mark the beginning of construction on a $330 million public/private project that will completely change the look of Rutgers University's main campus. 

The College Avenue Redevelopment Initiative will transform about 10 acres of land on the College Avenue campus into a new academic building, a new home for Rutgers Hillel, a brand-new academic building for the Rutgers Theological Seminary, and a residential honors college.

Across the street, in a parking lotpreviously occupied by the grease trucks, a student apartment complex will be put in.

It will come complete with shops and an "outdoor living room" where students can gather on an outdoor open green space, complete with a massive video screen. 

"This is a transformational project at a transformational point in the history of (Rutgers), New Brunswick and New Jersey, Paladino said.

It comes on the heels of the Rutgers University and UMDNJ merger, and the announcement of Rutgers joining of the Big 10, he said.

Additionally, the university's acquisition of land owned by the New Brunswick Theological Seminary is a deal "150 years in the making," Paladino said.

According to Rutgers, the new construction will include the first academic facility built on College Avenue since 1961.

Barchi said growth must take place on the historic campus for the university to stay current and competitive.

"We have to grow with the nation, and with intellectual strength and development and with the times," he said.

New Jersey has the highest rate of high school students leaving the state to attend college elsewhere, Christie said, a problem that is heavily rooted in the capacities of the state's colleges and universities.

The Rutgers expansion will help solve that problem, he said.

"I'm glad to be here on the day that that ends," he said.

Barchi said the construction will be completed by 2016, just in time for Rutgers' 250th anniversary.