Rutgers to Build New Training Facility, Performing Arts Center

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - Big news out of Rutgers on Thursday. The Rutgers University Board of Governors approved on Thursday construction of a multi-sport training and practice facility for Rutgers athletes on Livingston Campus. The Rutgers Board of Governors also approved on Thursday the university’s investment as a partial owner of the 60,000-square-foot New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. The new facility will be part of a 450,000-square-foot development that also will include office space and residential units on the site of the existing George Street Playhouse and Crossroads Theatre in downtown New Brunswick.

The four-story, 125-000-square-foot facility will replace what the university says are its currently outdated and undersized facilities with new practice rooms and locker rooms, as well as strength-training and conditioning facilities for the men’s and women’s basketball, gymnastics and wrestling programs. It is expected to open July 2019. The facility will be located on the southwest corner of the Athletics Plaza, adjacent to the Louis Brown Athletic Center and across from the Rutgers Business School building. Construction is expected to begin this spring.

“We are incredibly excited about this project,” said Pat Hobbs, director of Athletics for Rutgers. “The RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center will make a tremendous difference in the lives of our students and the competitiveness of our programs.”

The board approved the naming of the facility in November, when Rutgers and RWJBarnabas Health announced a partnership to create a comprehensive sports medicine program to serve Rutgers athletes, students and communities throughout New Jersey. Through this partnership, RWJBarnabas Health will become the exclusive health care provider for Rutgers Athletics, while creating a best-in-class sports medicine program that can be expanded across the state.

“When completed, the RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center will serve our Big Ten athletes, benefit the wider New Jersey community through sports medicine research and provide parking in what will be a vibrant corner of the Livingston Campus,” said Antonio Calcado, executive vice president for strategic planning and operations at Rutgers.

The facility will include space for nutrition counseling, coaches’ offices, a Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame, spirit shop and a space for student athletes to eat meals. A 555-space parking deck will be integrated into the building with space for bicycle storage.

The projected cost of the project is $115 million. The university will go out to bond for $26 million to pay for the parking garage, which will eventually be paid for with event parking fees. The university expects to pay for the rest of the project using funds raised through the R Big Ten Build campaign, a multimillion-dollar naming gift from RWJBarnabas Health, and tax credits from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s Economic Redevelopment and Growth Program.

The project is one of three being funded through the first phase of the R Big Ten Build campaign, which has generated $71.1 million in donations as of mid-March. The campaign also will cover a lacrosse and soccer training complex and an enhanced football training complex at the Hale Center.

Construction on the performing arts center is expected to begin in August, following demolition of the two existing theater spaces beginning in May. The arts center is expected to open for the fall 2019 semester, when Mason Gross will launch its musical theater program. Rutgers is working with the George Street Playhouse to find university locations to stage performances during the two-year construction project. This new center will allow the Mason Gross School of the Arts to launch a musical theater program and expand its opera program.

“Rutgers students will have the opportunity to perform for a downtown audience, right next to a professional presenting house, the State Theatre,” said Mason Gross School of the Arts Dean George B. Stauffer. “For New Jerseyans, it gives them the chance to see our students perform in a first-class setting.”

The center will feature two theater spaces, including a 465-seat lyric proscenium theater, designed to accommodate musical theater, dance, opera and dramatic theater, with an 86-foot stage and an orchestra pit. It also will include a tower for suspended stage scenery and equipment and a trap system below the stage used for scenery effects. The smaller theater will seat 253 people and is designed for theatrical performances, smaller dance performances and lectures, as well as community and musical events.

Chris Paladino, Devco president, said the performing arts center is expected to draw an additional 80,000 arts patrons to the city’s cultural center, which already brings in 400,000 people a year.

Along with the arts center, the redevelopment project is expected to include:

• 30,000 square feet of office space housing Middlesex County arts organizations
• A 207-unit, 18-story residential rental apartment tower
• A 344-space parking garage on an existing parking lot on Bayard Street, currently owned by the New Brunswick Cultural Center and TD Bank

Image credit: Ben Solomon/Rutgers University