Revitalizing Newark: One Theater Square tops off

Newark, N.J. — The Harman Group, a firm specializing in structural engineering and parking planning and design, announced that One Theater Square, a mixed-use residential tower, has topped off in a ceremony held on Wednesday, Sept. 20. The new building is located across the street from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) and is part of a planned development sponsored by NJPAC to develop the properties surrounding the entertainment venue with residential and commercial properties to redefine the streetscape of downtown Newark.

The $94 million development, located on a 1.2-acre site, stands tall at 22 stories and will be 268,500 square feet upon completion. The residential tower, clad in curved glass and thin brick clad precast panels to complement the NJPAC building across the street, brings a unique architectural design to downtown Newark and will offer sweeping views of the New York and Jersey City skylines. The tower will consist of 245 studio, one, two, and three-bedroom units, ranging from 585 to 1,700 square feet. Twenty-four of the units are designated as affordable housing. Amenities include a fitness center, lap pool, community rooms, and an outdoor deck.

The building will also feature 12,000 square feet of ground floor retail space and an adjacent 111,500-square-foot parking structure that can accommodate 285 cars.

“The Harman Group’s extensive experience designing and building innovative urban projects enabled us to design a structure that can not only accommodate future One Theater Square residents, but also those patrons that will be visiting the space on a daily basis,” says Albert Meyer, senior project engineer at The Harman Group. “One Theater Square will provide much-needed housing that is crucial to the urban revitalization of downtown Newark.”

The Harman group provided structural engineering and parking planning and design services on the project, which is being developed by a public-private partnership between NJPAC and Dranoff Properties and designed by BLT Architects. Additional contributions were provided by the state of New Jersey, the city of Newark, Prudential Financial and Fifth Third Bank.

Once completed, One Theater Square will be the first upscale high rise built in Newark in almost 60 years. The project broke ground on Nov. 14, 2016 and in Feb. 2017 was honored by New Jersey’s Alliance for Action as a project that will have a transformational impact on New Jersey’s economy, job creation and quality of life.

One Theater Square is slated to open in Summer of 2018.