New School Could Cost Newark $500M – And District Might Not Own It

NEWARK, NJ — The Newark Board of Education approved a resolution that will allow the district to advance plans to ink a 30-year lease for a new elementary school – with the total price tag estimated at nearly $500 million.

The school board unanimously voted in favor of the resolution at their meeting on Wednesday evening. Watch video footage here.

The proposed facility, which would be named Riverfront Elementary School, would be located at 56 Freeman Street – where a shuttered Catholic school currently stands – and be bordered by Fleming Avenue and Christie Street.

The developer and owner of the property is listed as 56 Freeman Street LLC. More information about the developer wasn’t shared at Wednesday’s hearing.

District administrators are proposing to lease the use of the property from the owner. The district would have the option to own the property at the end of the 30-year period – for a sum of money “yet to be negotiated,” administrators reported.

Under the lease proposal, the average monthly rent would come to $1.38 million, bringing the total bill to $498.39 million – which would make it the most expensive school ever built in the state, TAPinto Newark reported.

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District administrators say the new school would help alleviate chronic overcrowding in the city’s East Ward, which includes several aging buildings that have already seen a series of repairs. It would be able to serve about 667 students in pre-K through grade eight.

The building size would be about 151,295 square feet. It would include a multi-purpose room, a full gymnasium, administrative suites, teacher workrooms, an outdoor playground and a rooftop “recreational instructional space.” The main entrance would be on Fleming Avenue.

Superintendent Roger León said that because Newark is a former “Abbott district” – now an SDA district – it doesn’t have the authority to just build a new school building like another district would be able to do.

León said making repairs instead of building a new school could end up costing local taxpayers “billions of dollars” over the long run – and it would be “as harmful as leaving those schools unattended.”

The superintendent pointed to unrelated plans to build a controversial skyscraper nearby, saying that it will potentially bring a wave of new students to the neighborhood’s already overcrowded schools. Read More: Newark Planning Board Approves Skyscrapers In Ironbound Neighborhood

Wednesday’s vote allows district staff to move forward with planning efforts and securing state approval. The school board will have to vote again on the proposal to finalize the lease.

The school’s projected opening date is September 2028, NJ Advance Media reported.

Some attendees at the meeting questioned the proposal – including its price tag – with one speaker calling it “outlandish.”

“This feels like a padded number and it raises serious concerns, even with the building size,” he told the board.

The resolution approved Wednesday reads as follows:

WHEREAS 56 Freeman Street LLC, the owner of premises at 56 Freeman Street in the City of Newark, has offered to lease those premises to the Newark Board of Education (“Board”);

WHEREAS the proposed lease (the “56 Freeman Street Lease”) would provide the District with an additional facility suitable for use as a school building, with a turn-key customized build-out, for term of 30 years;

WHEREAS the Board conducted a public hearing prior to taking action on the 56 Freeman Street Lease pursuant to N.J.A.C. 6A:26-10.11 and in accordance with the provisions of the Open Public Meeting Act, N.J.S.A. 10:4-6 et seq;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Board hereby approves and authorizes the 56 Freeman Street Lease pursuant to the material terms set forth above and as further negotiated by the parties, subject to and conditioned upon approval of the Commissioner of Education and the Local Finance Board pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:20-4.2(e)(4) and the Office of the State Comptroller pursuant to N.J.S.A. 52:15C-10;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that applications for approval shall be submitted to the Commissioner of Education and the Local Finance Board; and a request for review shall be submitted to the Office of the State Comptroller;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a request for approval of an amendment to the Long Range Facilities Plan to reflect the 56 Freeman Street Lease and any other approvals needed to enter into the 56 Freeman Street Lease shall be submitted on behalf of the Board.

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