NEW BRUNSWICK — In 1976 when the people of Atlantic City danced in the streets to celebrate the passage of legalized gambling, many in downtown New Brunswick dared not even venture outside. Despite the presence of Rutgers University and pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick was a gritty wasteland, home to dive bars, greasy spoons and predators where,...
Despite the presence of Rutgers University and pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick was a gritty wasteland, home to dive bars, greasy spoons and predators where, as one former resident recalled: "You walked in pairs, if you walked at all."
That same year, New Brunswick and Atlantic City both made a massive commitment to redevelopment.
Atlantic City embraced casinos and assumed the ripple effect would raise the quality of life for everyone in the moldering resort city. New Brunswick instead created a private development corporation and hired world-renowned architect I.M. Pei.
Atlantic City is again on the skids, and Gov. Chris Christie is determined that a state takeover of the casino district is the only way to save one of New Jersey’s largest cash cows.
It is a drastic plan, and the inspiration for a rebirth of "Las Vegas East" comes not from Nevada or even Miami Beach. It comes from New Brunswick.
While Atlantic City was mismanaging its casino windfall, state officials said, New Brunswick built 7 million square feet of downtown space, generating nearly $1.6 billion in redevelopment investment.
And while Atlantic City lost population but never its reputation as "unclean and unsafe," New Brunswick grew, cut its overall crime rate by half and is now in the most ambitious building phase in its history.
"New Brunswick is the most successful revitalization model in New Jersey. Redevelopment there has been done with intelligence and independently of government," said Jon Hanson, chairman of the governor’s commission that recommended taking over Atlantic City. "I absolutely believe following that model may be Atlantic City’s best hope."
New Brunswick officials warn that neither the state nor Atlantic City officials and casino owners may be willing to make the concessions necessary to follow the New Brunswick model.
This is a recent photo of New Brunswick taken from the approximate site of the Albany Street Bridge, looking up Albany Street towards the train station. "You need a clear vision, commitment to a common goal, safe streets and a stable institution that can inspire trust in investors," said Christopher Paladino, president of the New Brunswick Development Corporation. "Atlantic City doesn’t seem to have any of that right now."
He also questioned whether the New Brunswick success could be duplicated by a public commission. A private corporation, he noted, is not bound by the dictates of public hearings, bid advertising and political change.
"The plan that Christie conceives may not survive the next governor or change in the Legislature," Paladino said. "Our master plan is above politics, and also capable of instantly adapting as market conditions change."
Stability in New Brunswick depends on a unique partnership developed 35 years ago. Johnson & Johnson announced it would only stay in this Central Jersey city if everyone — private and public entities — came to the table prepared to work for a common goal.
IN THE BEGINNING
The late Richard B. Sellars, then J&J chief executive, founded Devco, the nonprofit, tax-exempt redevelopment corporation. He hired Pei to design not only J&J’s new world headquarters, but a downtown to match. The architect "drew a bunch of concentric circles," Paladino said, designating an arts district with theaters, a medical campus, academic buildings and a grand hotel.
Since 1976, Devco has built or renovated three theaters, office buildings, Rutgers student housing, government buildings, hotels, hospitals, restaurants, residential housing and a convent.
Currently in the works are a 632,000-square-foot "transit village" adjacent to the train station and $165 million research tower. Devco now owns 2 million square feet of space in the city, including the Middlesex County courthouse, according to Devco records.
Unlike redevelopment in Newark and Camden, the Devco model didn’t try to revitalize multiple neighborhoods with individual projects, but instead concentrated on a small, extremely dense corridor within approximately 10 blocks of the New Brunswick train station.
In that downtown district, Devco leveraged grants and promoted interdependent mixed-use projects, officials said.
This is a recent photo of New Brunswick. It shows the train station and was taken from what now is the Ferren Mall. To the right is the "Golden Triangle.""The one thing we haven’t done really well is retail," said Paladino, 50, former in-house counsel to Gov. Jim Florio. "You can get a top-notch meal in downtown New Brunswick, great theater and first-class medical treatment, but you can’t buy a decent pair of jeans."
Paladino knows New Brunswick. He grew up in its suburbs and "the downtown was the center of my admittedly limited universe. We came downtown to go to the doctors, buy school shoes and go to church."
But then came the 1960s. New Brunswick escaped riots but not white flight. Rutgers and its 45,000 students stayed, but there was a disconnect between the city, corporations and colleges.
The first major Devco project undertaken was the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Albany Street. The $6 million investment was modest by today’s standards, but "banks wouldn’t touch us because of New Brunswick’s reputation," Paladino said.
Instead, J&J underwrote the initial loan, and momentum began to build. A key component currently missing in Atlantic City, Paladino said, was that "all stakeholders" were involved, including J&J, Rutgers, city and county government, two hospitals, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Rutgers Medical School.
One of the champions behind Devco was John Lynch, New Brunswick mayor from 1979 to 1991.
Lynch was a key figure in obtaining state and federal grants to underwrite New Brunswick’s turnaround. He was equally famous for his vitriol against anyone who opposed his plans.
Also a former state senator who pleaded guilty in 2006 to fraud and income tax evasion involving political contracts not connected to New Brunswick, Lynch did not return phone calls.
Progress in New Brunswick periodically stalled. When Paladino came on board, no office space had been built in several years.
"So we reinvented ourselves," said Paladino. "We honed things and focused on connectivity," between different projects, Paladino said. "We capitalized on our assets, which Atlantic City hasn’t done. Have they forgotten the beach down there?"
Devco is not above criticism. Traffic and parking have been nightmarish for decades, as has ongoing construction.
Some residents objected that the agency razed historical buildings and ignored the poorer residents of New Brunswick, who were pushed out of downtown when the welfare office was moved and several low-income housing buildings were condemned and demolished.
"I cringe when people talk about brick and mortar being enough to make a city. What about its people?" said David Harris Jr., executive director of the Greater New Brunswick Day Care Council. "The most egregious thing that happened from the ’70s until now is the upheaval and removal of poor minorities who were anywhere near the central business district.
"We may have revitalized the city for business, but we haven’t solved its problems," Harris said.
Paladino responds that Devco built two schools and affordable housing, and that the facilities of the Wellness Center about to begin construction will be open to all 50,000 city residents at a reduced rate.
He also noted: "Solving the social ills of New Brunswick was never our mission."
That is the role of another private nonprofit agency Sellars founded a year before Devco. New Brunswick Tomorrow executive director Jeffrey Vega disputed assertions by Harris, naming a dozen programs he said target a local populace that has shifted from low-income black people to immigrant Hispanics over the past 30 years.
"With the high number of immigrants came a whole new set of problems that we are still working on," Vega said. "No city has gotten it right, but New Brunswick comes closest."
DEFENDING DEVCO
Retired J&J Vice President John J. Heldrich presided over the birth of Devco and New Brunswick Tomorrow and continued an active involvement in both entities even after he retired from the pharmaceutical corporation in 1991.
Considered the grand old man of New Brunswick redevelopment, Heldrich defends the track record of both Devco, which he called "the redevelopment engine," and New Brunswick Tomorrow, "the social engine."
"We had to make some hard choices when it came to the best interest of the city," said Heldrich, now 84 and still passionate about the city’s transformation.
"We did not want to displace people or demolish historic sites, but sometimes there wasn’t a choice," said Heldrich, adding another unique factor of the New Brunswick model is polls taken of city residents every two years to gauge their support of the redevelopment.
"As time went by, more and more residents supported what we were doing," said Heldrich. "What makes New Brunswick unique is our public-private collaboration, along with the social engine that gives a city heart and soul."
The plan endorsed by Christie to revitalize Atlantic City currently sidesteps the whole issue of social ills by creating, in essence, a Vatican City. The state-run casino district would be separate from the impoverished rest of Atlantic City, which Christie accused of "squandering hundreds of millions of dollars" in past casino revenues.
THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Any plan that shuts out local government and ignores local residents is ethically questionable and counter-productive, said New Brunswick Mayor Jim Cahill.
"There are a lot of benefits to a private development corporation, but you can’t eliminate the voice of the people," Cahill said. "Not only is it the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing, because they are not going away.
"If you want a successful destination city, people have to feel safe. And nobody feels safe unless there are people on the street doing positive things."
Staff writer Sue Epstein contributed to this report.