



Newark, New Jersey: Construction is well underway on the Express Newark project in the former Hahne & Company Department Store on Broad Street in Downtown Newark. Tours were given on Tuesday of the development, which is located at the corner of New Street. It is scheduled to be completed in 2017.





When completed, the building will contain a Whole Foods Market location, the third in Essex County. The market will be one of only two supermarkets in Newark's Central Ward. A ShopRite opened along Springfield Avenue in September, and the Pathmark on Bergen Street closed last month.





"Over the past 30 or 40 years, people have been going to the neighboring towns to shop", said Deputy Mayor Baye Adofo-Wilson, c iting Kearny, Montclair, and West Orange. "There really wasn't any place here to shop", he added, saying that now, "Downtown Newark is a place that people want to live and work" .





In addition, the building will be home to mixed-income housing and a new space for the Rutgers University-Newark Department of Arts, Culture, and Media, with a portrait studio, gallery, and an auditorium. Rutgers University-Newark chancellor Nancy Cantor told reporters that she hopes that the school's bookstore will move to the Hahne's building.





The building will also house office space. The first office tenant is expected to be announced this week, according to Jon Cortell with L+M Development Partners, who told Essex County Place that having a Whole Foods Market location in the development attracts other companies.





Hahne's, once a popular Northern New Jersey department store chain, closed its Newark location in 1987, though to former shoppers, the memories remain.





The project is being financed by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Goldman Sachs, Prudential, and Citi.













Above: The Whole Foods Market will be located in the space to the right. Rutgers-Newark will occupy the space to the left.













Above: Project developers discuss the status of the Hahne's Building redevelopment













Above: Officials with Rutgers-Newark, the City of Newark, and the Legacy Cities Partnership discuss the plans for the Hahne's Building





Above: Rutgers-Newark Chancellor Nancy Cantor discusses the Hahne's Express Newark project





Above: Deputy Mayor Baye Adofo-Wilson discusses the project





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