AWARDS:
Winner of New Jersey Future’s Smart Growth Award
Working with both the Borough of Princeton and Nassau/HKT Associates, MRA played a key role in the implementation of the Princeton Redevelopment Project. MRA services included site planning, public facilitation, and design and engineering coordination.
The two-acre redevelopment site is strategically located in the heart of Princeton on Wither-spoon Street, one block north of the Princeton University campus. Formerly a public parking lot, the Borough had the vision to designate the site “in need of redevelopment” and solicit bids from private development firms to join with them in creating a new public town center.
The development program includes 77 residential apartments, over 16,000 SF of commercial retail space, a 500-car public parking garage, and a 15,000-SF public plaza. The site plan, architecture, and landscape architecture had to be planned in coordination with a new public library, which anchors one of the three sides of the public plaza. In addition, the collective redevelopment project had to reflect the eclectic nature of Princeton’s urban fabric.
This redevelopment project serves as an excellent example of public/private partnership in redeveloping an under-utilized real estate resource.
