NEWARK, NJ—Rutgers University has announced plans to occupy a portion of the former Hahne & Company department store in downtown Newark to develop an arts and cultural center called “Express Newark.”

The Rutgers University Board of Governors approved the $25-million plan late last week. The multi-purpose will include an arts incubator, communication media center design consortium, print shop, portrait studio, and lecture hall/maker space, as well as new exhibition and performance spaces for artists' space programming by the RU-N Institute of Jazz Studies and the Newark Museum. 

Rutgers is taking 57,000 square feet of the 440,000-square-foot building that opened in 1901. Hahne & Co. closed its doors in 1986, according to NJ.com. Newark-based Hanini Group in partnership with L&M Development acquired the 440,000-square-foot building last year. The Board of Governors authorized Rutgers to spend up to $25 million, contingent upon securing approximately $8 million from various incentive programs and cost projections that would enable the university to complete and operate the project.

”Express Newark leverages the talent, creativity, and commitment of RU-N's superlative studio, performing, and literary artists, humanists, and journalists, with the phenomenal assets of Newark as a cultural capital and the power of the arts to transform cities through intergroup dialogue, exploring identities, and spurring entrepreneurship,” says Rutgers University Newark Chancellor Nancy Cantor. “We aspire for Express Newark to play a pivotal role as a 'third space,' where the university and community come together to advance scholarship, strengthen our community, and build the momentum behind Newark's renaissance.”