NEWARK-Work is just under way for the Village at Newark, a mixed-use, off-campus student-housing complex with a total of at least 812 residential units. The developers--American Campus Communities of Austin, TX and the Denver-based Titan Investments--both of which specialize in student-housing projects, are doing their latest project with the help of the locally based Gibbons Real Property and Environmental Law Group. The latter represented the developers in connection with required approvals and in the negotiation of a financial agreement with the city.

A price tag for the project, which is scheduled to be completed in May 2007 in time for the 2007-2008 academic year, has been set at just under $73 million. For that amount, ACC and Titan will build a complex initially of 812 units in two buildings, with that key count expandable to 838, "without modifying the existing building area," says Bill Bayless, ACC president and CEO. That potential expansion is pending approval from this city's Central Planning Board, according to Bayless.

The Village at Newark also calls for a 13,500-sf amenities package, including a fitness center, a mini-theater, business center and recreation area. Also part of that package is just under 6,400 sf of ground-floor retail space. The site plan also calls for a 355-car structured parking garage.

"This project exemplifies our off-campus development strategy, which focuses on in-fill urban development in underserved markets," says Bayless, whose company most recently did a similar complex near the campus of Temple University in Philadelphia. "Beyond the campuses in the immediate area, our site's proximity to public transit provides access to all institutions of higher education in the metro New York area."

Located at Central Avenue and Lock Street here, the site is directly across the street from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and two blocks from the Newark campus of Rutgers University, which has its main campus in New Brunswick. Also nearby are Essex County Community College, the local campus of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and the Seton Hall University School of Law.