A major mixed-use development by a local university is expected to be finished this year.

Construction is continuing to advance on Rutgers University’s Honors Living-Learning Community project in Downtown Newark. This unique five-story building is expected to include 391 beds for Rutgers-Newark students in a mixture of studios, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and double occupancy dorms, along with academic space for the university. Additional features will include a parking garage and an outdoor public piazza designed by ICRAVE.

Giovana Moreano of project contractor Hollister Construction Services told Jersey Digs that construction is slated to be finished towards the end of the summer. A ceremony was held earlier this month to celebrate the “topping out” of the 154,000-square-foot building, according to a prepared statement.

The development, which is being built where a university parking lot and a university child care center used to stand, will be the latest new building along the rapidly changing Halsey Street corridor. It will stretch north to south from New Street to Linden Street and east to west from Halsey Street to Washington Street.

There will also be over a dozen storefronts throughout the building, bringing a total of 25,287 square feet of retail space. It is not yet clear if any of these spaces have been leased. A university spokesperson told Jersey Digs that they do not have any announcements regarding tenants at this time.

The university has been engaged in multiple other development projects over the last few years as it increases its presence in the central business district of New Jersey’s largest city. While Rutgers-Newark’s most publicized project in Downtown Newark that has reached completion would likely be the Express Newark space inside the Hahne & Co. redevelopment, the school also recently developed an alumni center in a renovated building at the corner of Central Avenue and Washington Street. Plans by L+M Development Partners to turn a Rutgers-owned building at 155 Washington Street into apartments, retail space, and university space are also in the works.

Rutgers-Newark is far from the only New Jersey public university that has been involved in mixed-use development over the last few years. For instance, Rowan University has seen the construction of multiple buildings as part of the Rowan Boulevard project in Glassboro while The College of New Jersey recently saw the development of the Campus Town project in Ewing Township. Additional projects are in the works for New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark’s University Heights neighborhood and at New Jersey City University in Jersey City.

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