Universities, and clusters of universities as we have in Newark, are economic engines.  We are purchasers, employers, real estate developers, business incubators, advisors, and workforce developers.

The more we are residential, the more demand there is for amenities; restaurants, retail, housing surrounding the campuses, and events.

The larger the research program, the larger the business incubation program through commercialization of intellectual property, which, along with the workforce, tends to draw larger, established companies and mid-size suppliers.

NJIT operates the 23rd largest incubator facility in the US, focusing on high technology companies and minority owned businesses in partnership with a non-profit foundation started by Henry Johnson, Publisher of City News.

The elements are in place in Newark and development is moving forward.  Plans for a redevelopment zone from University Heights down to Broad Street Station and discussions of the Downtown Redevelopment project are important to the CHEN institutions and Newark.

NJIT’s decision to play its home baseball games in Riverfront Stadium, next to Broad Street Station, is more about economic development, and the universities and colleges being integral to the fabric of the community, than it is about baseball.  Students, as pointed out by Arthur Stern, a noted developer, at a recent Regional Business Partnership real estate forum, are adventuresome.  The will migrate from University Heights to Riverfront Stadium, not only NJIT games but Bears games as well.  As the area is developed, they will stop along the way, have dinner, buy goods, and want to live there when they are upperclassmen and graduate students.

One of the calls for action for cities who are home to universities is to leverage them for economic development purposes; to incorporate colleges and universities in development of economic development strategies.  Mayor Sharpe James and Richard Monteilh, Newark’s Business Administrator, fully understand this.  The CHEN institutions are intimately involved in discussions and plans for the James Street Historic District Redevelopment and the Downtown Redevelopment Project.  Twenty-five percent of the Mayor’s recently announced Blue Ribbon Commission on the Downtown Redevelopment, including the potential for an arena, hotel complex, retail shops, and municipal offices comes from Newark’s higher education community.

Let me say that in 1996, I was invited to give a lecture at Princeton University on the physics of flame spreading in reduced gravity.  I debated whether or not to give that lecture today but though the better of it.  After the lecture, and the night before I flew out of Newark Liberty International, I stayed at the Holiday Inn at the Airport.  I had some time late afternoon, and drove the rental car into Newark, down Broad Street.  Had never been here before.  My reaction was that this was a place where things would happen, proximity to New York, a world-class transportation infrastructure, and top flight higher education.  I never forgot that trip.  The next time I was on Broad Street, it was to march from City Hall to Symphony Hall next to Mayor Sharpe James and Congressman Don Payne on the opening day in July of 2002 of the US Youth Games hosted by Newark.  For me, I had arrived at Destination Newark.

We in the higher education community, and CHEN, are committed to work with local, state, and federal government and business and industry leaders to ensure that Destination Newark is a reality for many others.