A vacant brownstone in Newark’s Military Park Commons Historic District is being expanded into a 15-unit residential development.

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.

For too long, Newark’s Downtown was pockmarked with vacant relics of the city’s heyday, but a few local developers have been turning that narrative around in recent years. The Berger Organization is one of these developers, having revived historic structures in the city like the Robert Treat Center and the Military Park Building.

With all the development happening in the Garden State, Rutgers has announced that it will now offer a graduate-level certification program dedicated to development and redevelopment. The program aims to train students for work at high-level positions within the industry.

Whole Foods Market is getting close to opening a brand new location in Newark. In addition to 110 new jobs, Whole Foods is offering a number of grants and microcredit lending opportunities to the local community.

The Blues People International Festival has returned to Newark, New Jersey for a second annual weeklong celebration of jazz, funk, salsa, and gospel music. The festival is free to the public and aims to celebrate music representative of and developed by people of African descent.

Fast, quality, and healthy is the new lunch time mantra. So it’s no surprise, Grabbagreen, an Arizona-based fast-casual concept known for their fresh and healthy alternative to fast food, is experiencing rapid growth. They’re now making their northeastern debut with a new store in Downtown Newark.

Barcade is planning to open a bar in Downtown Newark. The bar, which serves a wide variety of craft beers, sandwiches, and burgers, is known for the dozens of vintage arcade video games at each location.

World-renowned celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson has signed on to open up a restaurant in one of downtown Newark’s most prominent buildings, adding another feather in the cap to both the city’s revitalization and to a historic landmark that’s undergoing a thorough restoration.

Another historic but neglected building in one of New Jersey’s oldest stretches of downtown is getting a facelift, bringing more residential units plus some revitalized retail back to the heart of Newark.