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A collegial style for Glassboro

National experts say having a thriving town near campus is increasingly important to college students. Rowan University has gotten the message.

National experts say having a thriving town near campus is increasingly important to college students.

Rowan University has gotten the message.

Once a sleepy teachers college, Rowan will become part of a nearly $100 million construction project this summer that will significantly change the environment for students.

The Rowan Boulevard Project calls for a pedestrian-friendly road to be carved between the eastern edge of the leafy campus and downtown Glassboro, which will be revitalized and restyled into "a quintessential college town," according to the redevelopers. Groundbreaking is planned for June and will include off-campus student housing near downtown.

"Students are looking for the ideal college experience," said Sarah Flanagan, a vice president with the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. "Typically, they want a place where they can go and get off campus and find something to do."

Joe Cardona, spokesman for the 10,000-student college in Gloucester County, said the project would address student complaints that there's not much to do off campus.

"It will help more in retention rather than recruitment," he said. "We hear loud and clear that they want more alternatives, for working or for entertainment."

Downtown Glassboro, a once-bustling shopping center, has been in decline for decades, unable to compete with local strip shopping centers and malls. It has a small diner, a shuttered movie palace, and a few scattered shops in the area of Main and High Streets.

"It doesn't flow right. There's stores, then homes, then stores," said Joseph A. Brigandi, borough administrator and longtime resident.

Over the next two or three years, a new downtown, which will begin at Route 322 and funnel into the intersection of Main and High Streets will rise with a Holiday Inn Express, a two-story Barnes & Noble bookstore with a Starbucks, and a row of boutiques and restaurants. The redevelopers also are trying to attract a movie complex, a performing arts center and a new library.

Though the boulevard is to be only about a third of a mile long, it is expected to go a long way toward cementing town-gown relations.

"We want to make Glassboro more of a university downtown, a destination, a walkable town," said Mayor Leo McCabe. He said the borough of 19,000 people wants to take advantage of its proximity to the college and attract students to a revitalized downtown.

Rowan President Donald Farish calls the project "a turning point in our history." He said students will gain a sense of community and the opportunity to volunteer and participate in civic projects.

"I see this as a very important step in the evolution of the college and the community itself," he said.

Eight years in the planning, the project represents a unique partnership between a redevelopment company, the borough and the university. A mix of private investment capital and local, state and federal funds will finance the road and buildings.

"It's a true public-private partnership," said Greg Filipek, a principal in Sora Holdings L.L.C., a redeveloper with offices in Glassboro and Towson, Maryland. "We're satisfying the town's needs and the university's needs with a unique model."

Using a $5 million state casino reinvestment loan, from a fund available to depressed communities, Glassboro hired Sora to prepare the design and to acquire 90 properties for the new boulevard and downtown.

Brigandi said about 30 parcels were vacant, while the rest were rental properties, houses, shops and two churches. The structures will be demolished, beginning in a few weeks.

Sora will construct all of the new buildings in the downtown as well as the off-campus student housing, using about $85 million in private money. Brigandi said the borough plans to sell all the acquired land to Sora, partly to pay off the borough's loan.

Sora will then act as landlord, attracting new shops, creating a sustainable downtown, managing the buildings and paying a projected $625,000 in annual taxes in the initial phases. More than 400 jobs are expected to be created.

Rowan has agreed to lease the planned Barnes & Noble university bookstore and the off-campus townhouse-style housing, which will be rented to more than 850 students.

Brigandi said the arrangement will benefit the borough because the properties would have been tax-exempt if the college owned them. And, by having Rowan as the landlord to the students, the college will be able to control drinking problems and unruly behavior through suspensions and expulsions, he said.

For Rowan, the deal is an opportunity to provide more housing for its students without having to find resources to build or buy. And it will give students off-campus opportunities for work and play.

Barmack Nassirian, an official with the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, says applicants don't choose colleges "solely on the basis of scholarship and the caliber of academic offerings."

Instead, they often look at whether a college has a "charming downtownish area where they can hang out and take care of business," and whether there's a sushi bar in the dining halls, he said.

Rowan has also committed $1 million to marketing studies over the next 10 years to determine what mix of shops would be successful in the downtown to meet both student and residents' needs.

McCabe said the new downtown will probably pay homage to the borough's history in some fashion.

"Originally we were a glass-making town," he said. "We'd like to bring in glass-blowing and have the Heritage Glass Museum open more often."