While the concept of charter schools has become reality, the new idea of teachers and education-based communities as purveyors of urban renaissance requires a new incarnation of a public-private partnership – such as the one developed by Ron Beit, CEO of the RBH Group, Newark. To fulfill its vision and mission, RBH — as leaders in real estate financing, development and management services, acquired 77 different parcels of land along 11 blighted blocks of Halsey and William Streets. In a complex, virtually one of a kind public-private partnership, development assistance and financial backing came from a wide variety of financial and lending institutions, individual investors, and city, state and federal governments. The project also received one of the largest residential Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit allocations in the State of New Jersey. The amalgamation of these financial arrangements resulted in the $150 million needed for the eight-building project.
The Halsey Street corridor and neighborhood, also known as an enclave for galleries and artists, is surrounded by five universities and is in close proximity to public transportation. To be ideally situated in an area conducive to creativity and higher education, RBH proposed a built solution to add re-vamped primary education to the mix – with the addition of one big, previously overlooked component – the community of teachers needed to not just sustain the schools, but to both anchor and drive the surrounding community forward.
The proposal: Teachers Village – a mixed use educational, residential and retail environment to include three charter schools, a private daycare center, 214 units of affordable rental housing marketed to teachers, and 65,000 sf of high quality retail in over 20 different businesses. The strategy: by investing in the needs and wants of the teachers, the teachers become invested in not just their students, but in their surrounding community as well.