Case Study
As Rowan began to increase its capital spending locally, the city of Glassboro saw a unique opportunity to leverage the Rowan investments by developing a plan for the transformation of the downtown area leading to the university. This plan ultimately became the $476 million, mixed-use development of Rowan Boulevard. In the city of Glassboro more than 30 percent of school-aged children qualified for the free lunch program and 20 percent of families earn under the poverty line. The growth that was transforming Rowan was noticed by the former mayor of Glassboro and the business community. Policy and business leaders were encouraged by the growing student market for retail services, housing and food coupled with the university’s strategic focus on becoming an “engine of growth” for Southern New Jersey. In 2008, the town purchased and demolished rundown properties to make way for the development. The Rowan Boulevard design plan generated significant interest by developers, in part because it included lease-back arrangements with the university for student housing and academic buildings.
The South Jersey Technology Park at Rowan University is located approximately one mile from the Rowan campus. According to Dr. Beena Sukumaran, who directed the management of the park for Rowan, the growth of business and investment in the Glassboro area was initiated in partnership with a local philanthropist, Sam Jones, who donated $1 million in 2006 for the establishment of the technology park. According to university literature, “The mission of the Technology Park is to establish a technology based entrepreneurial economy; expand and strengthen the unique research and learning environment of Rowan University; and create value for its surrounding communities in their economic, physical and social development.”
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Case Study
As soon as it became clear that Stillman would be located in a Opportunity Zone, the school’s president seized the opportunity to enlist the support of potential private equity partners, the City of Tuscaloosa, and consultants to develop investment projects for the school’s vacant and unused property holdings. As a result, Stillman College has developed plans to build three projects: 100 units of workforce housing for its faculty, administration, staff; redevelopment of an existing, vacant student dormitory for senior student housing; and a hotel (which has been postponed for COVID-19 reasons).
Stillman College signed a memorandum of understanding with partners in a project to build a 125-room hotel on the college campus to serve as a teaching center for the school’s hospitality management program. Also a part of the project is mixed-use residential and commercial space, including market-rate housing for faculty, graduate students and the surrounding community. The plan is for the project to be sold back to Stillman College for its long-term use at the end of a 10-year holding period, with the cash flowing back to the college. The primary investor is the Renaissance HBCU Opportunity Fund, an Opportunity Fund, that provides assistance and financing to historically black colleges and universities.