By RONDA KAYSEN
GLASSBORO, N.J. — Glassboro’s downtown has been dying for decades, with shops struggling to compete with nearby strip malls and students from the local university showing little interest in the run-down Main Street. Now, borough officials hope that a $300 million makeover will draw shoppers to the downtown stores and revive its flagging image.
A large Barnes & Noble that opened in 2010 is the centerpiece of the project, and it doubles as the university bookstore for Rowan students.
Eager to avoid the fate of Camden, its downtrodden neighbor less than 20 miles north, Glassboro enlisted a private developer, Sora Development, to rebuild a 26-acre swath of its town center. The new Rowan Boulevard connects the borough hall with Rowan University, a public college.
Construction on the new town center began in 2009 and includes plans for a hotel, retail stores, a public park and rental housing. In addition, the 15-building development adds more than 1,500 beds for student housing, 72,000 square feet of classroom space and a university bookstore. The decade-long plan is an effort to erase the line between town and gown, by turning this dormant community of 19,000 into a real college town.
“Glassboro was in a downward spiral, and if you don’t fix that then it’s ultimately going to be bad for everybody,” said Joe Getz, a principal with the JGSC Group, a consulting business that provided economic modeling for Glassboro. “You’ve been to Camden? Camden’s what happens when the economics leave.”
While Glassboro has been flailing, Rowan University has been on overdrive. In 1992, Rowan, then a small teachers college, received a $100 million endowment that allowed it to become a full-fledged university. Last year, Rowan opened a medical school in Camden. The university expects its population to double to 25,000 over the next decade.
“Let’s face it, the town has changed, but the university has changed immensely,” said Joseph A. Brigandi Jr., borough administrator of Glassboro. “We support Rowan growing, but only if they grow in a smart way that benefits us both.”
The redevelopment plan is not without risks for Glassboro. The borough issued $28 million in municipal bonds in 2006 to buy and demolish the existing properties — a collection of bungalows that had been mostly private student rental housing. The new street grid was financed with $3.5 million in public grant funding. As part of the deal, the developer will make payments to Glassboro in lieu of taxes for the next 30 years, which could hurt school district financing because the borough isn’t obligated to share the revenue.
If the development succeeds, Glassboro could be rejuvenated. If it fails, Glassboro could be left with a new main street that snarls traffic and siphons business away from the very downtown shops the project was intended to save.
“It’s a very tricky proposition for political leadership to assume that it can compete with people who do business full time making those kinds of decisions,” said Gordon MacInnes, president of New Jersey Policy Perspective, a government research organization.
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