Downtown Newark will have its first bookstore in decades with the arrival of a Barnes & Noble College store, expected to open in February 2017 serving the Rutgers University-Newark campus and downtown residents.
The bookstore is the result of a partnership between L+M Development Partners, Prudential Financial, Inc. and The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. It will be housed in the heart of downtown Newark at Halsey street, in the iconic Hahne & Co. development. The building is currently home to a Whole Foods Market as well as the brand new Express Newark—Rutgers’ Department of Arts, Culture and Media.
The Barnes & Noble College store, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. will span close to 10,000 square feet spread over two floors. “We are thrilled to become a new community member and partner in the future of Rutgers University and downtown Newark,” said Patrick Maloney, President of Barnes & Noble College. “Our Hahne’s location will offer top-of-line textbook service to Rutgers students and faculty in addition to providing new bookstore access to tens of thousands of Newark residents.”
The bookstore is part the ongoing revitalization of the downtown Newark area, improving quality of life of residents beyond the Rutgers campus. “Bringing on Barnes & Noble College will deliver an outstanding addition to the Rutgers University-Newark campus while strengthening a community that has lacked quality bookstores for decades” said Jonathan Cortell, vice president of development at L+M Development Partners.
The Chancellor of Rutgers University, Nancy Cantor, finds the bookstore to be a good fit for the Hahne’s & Co. building space as well as for residents of the area. “Just like placing our new arts incubator, Express Newark, in the Hahne’s building, moving our bookstore comes from cross-sector collaboration, helping realize our vision of Rutgers-Newark as seamlessly integrated with the city, providing an engaging new space for the two-way interchange of ideas between university and community.”
The Barnes & Noble College store is the latest development in the restoration project on the historic Hahne’s building. Beginning in June 2015, the Hahne’s & Co. projects have featured mixed-income residential units as well as the aforementioned Whole Foods and Express Newark.
