Airport City Newark Coalition Awarded Fourth Round of Funding
Led by the members of the Hillier College of Architecture and Design, the Airport City Newark (ACN) coalition recently received a fourth round of funding from the Prudential Foundation to further investigate the feasibility of their Aerotropolis concept, a transit-oriented development in the vicinity of the Newark International Airport. Geographically, the primary beneficiary of the proposed redevelopment will be the South Ward in the City of Newark. It is a strategy that promotes reshaping cities around the changing nature of air transport and global digital communication.
The ACN coalition is composed of a team of researchers from several universities, government bodies and research entities. Principal investigators are Dr. Colette Santasieri, executive director of the Center for Community Systems at NJIT, and HCAD Professor Darius Sollohub, who serves on the New Jersey Committee of the Regional Plan Association. Affiliated universities include Rutgers University and the University of Pennsylvania.
In the fourth phase, the ACN coalition will organize four community benefits meetings. The Community Benefits Initiative is a planning tool that will facilitate direct feedback from the community members about their needs in terms of affordability, neighborhood amenities, and the kind of housing to be built as part of the proposed redevelopment.
“Colette and I have also applied to the U.S. EDA (U.S. Economic Development Administration) for funds to conduct an economic analysis. This would be done by a third-party consultant that would specifically look at the feasibility of development, given where we are in the marketplace and having access to proprietary data that indicates the potential of the proposed project," said Sollohub. "For example, if you build housing – this is what you could rent it for, and these are the projected occupancy rates, this is the percentage of affordability that the Community Benefit Agreement asks for… They would assess these parameters in very precise terms."
The ACN has two goals. The immediate goal is to expand the AirTrain to make the transit station in the Newark South Ward accessible to the community. There are five critical steps in reaching this immediate goal: petition for federal funds for station modifications and additional land; avoid extensive litigation by repaying depreciated cost of existing station; recommend purchase by another entity (e.g., NJ Transit) and related actions required from the City of Newark; designate the Dayton neighborhood as Zone in Need of Redevelopment; and commission the economic development analysis (to be funded by the U.S. EDA and/or NJEDA). The proposed plan would create 150 re-purposed acres, 10,000-12,000 new jobs, 5,000-6,000 new dwelling units (inclusionary and workforce) for 6,000-8,000 new residents.
Sollohub added, “Those are some very rough numbers in terms of the new jobs and units. Residents and everything that a newly-opened station could bring, which could create a whole new neighborhood. That can happen almost instantly. We are talking about 6,000 new dwelling units, plus amenities, plus parking... So that's the near-term goal."
The second, follow up goal, is the redevelopment of the Newark Liberty International Airport following a headhouse design that opens directly to the Weequahic and Dayton neighborhoods. Sollohub describes the headhouse “as the grand space through which you enter a transportation system; think the Great Hall at Grand Central Station.” An airport headhouse would be vertically oriented. Sollohub explains the plan: “You get off the train, go through security, check your bags and then you get into a people-mover that takes you to the terminal. Almost every new airport being developed in the world today follows this model, where you have one central terminal that connects to all of the concourses for different airlines, or what are called midfield concourse terminals.”
The plan for accomplishing the follow-up goal is to connect airlines to local and regional rail lines, making Newark an even larger intermodal transportation hub. According to the plan, new developments would emerge in Newark South Ward, as well as new business — restaurants, commercial ventures, and hotels all centered around the airport.