The Boulevard of Luxury Living (draft)

The Rowan Boulevard Project, although not completely finished yet, has already started to become an important aspect for Rowan University and the borough of Glassboro. From housing to retail, each part provides various benefits to students and people of the community. The social aspect creates a place to go with a group of friends or a place to entertain the whole, entire family. Rowan Boulevard will be the next social destination at Rowan and offers a new generation of luxury living.

Rowan Boulevard has already completed the first stages of the project and those alone have showed us what more great things can be expected. The Rowan website it states that in 2008, Phase 1 was completed with 154 units that provided living for 568 students and a year later marked the completion of Phase 2, which offers an additional 88 units for 316 students. This marked the conclusion of the Rowan Boulevard Apartment Complex for second year students to have a brand new home right on campus. In fall of 2010, the Barnes and Noble Collegiate Superstore opened for business. This 36,000-square-foot bookstore offers a gigantic selection of books, a textbook section exclusively for Rowan University, a varsity apparel area, and a Starbucks café. With these buildings finalized, it gives the people in Glassboro a sneak peak of what else is to come.

Not only has Rowan Boulevard started to be physically beneficial but it is also providing everlasting effects on the community. The student housing offers a home on campus for more students, who wished to live on campus rather than commuting to create a larger class size in general. The old bookstore on campus was very small and did not offer a large variety of its products. It was also in an outdated building and did not create a warm environment for its students. The new Barnes and Noble, in contrast, provides an open workspace for students with natural light and a convenient café in the store to grab a quick snack or beverage. Also, a larger quantity of textbooks, supplies, and school clothing is offered on the two-story bookstore. In addition to what the bookstore is selling, this larger store offers more job opportunities for students with federal work-study. The overall effect of Rowan Boulevard has generally created a positive environment so far.

With what is already in place, the expectations of Rowan Boulevard are very high and Sora Holdings plans to meet all of them. In her article, Next Rowan Boulevard Project Begins in Glassboro, Jessica Driscoll maintains that the construction for The Whitney Center, in honor of the Whitney Family who were among the pioneer glassmakers of Glassboro, has already began and adds another large impact. Driscoll also explains, this mixed-used 22,000 square-foot building features five stories with the first floor retail space and the additional four stories will provide housing for 300 students enrolled in the Thomas N. Bantivoglio Honors Concentration Program with the university. According to Jessica Driscoll, Across the street from The Whitney Center will be home of a five-story Marriot Courtyard Hotel and Conference Center, which will hold 100 rooms, a meeting space center, a restaurant, and a 1,400-car parking garage, expected to be completed in fall 2011. One of the later stages of the project will bring the Town Square in the historic end of the boulevard where family gatherings, outdoor concerts, and shows could take place throughout the year. Driscoll finally states that three additional buildings are with mixed-uses are to break ground sometime in 2011 and add another 100,000 square-feet for the final phase of Rowan Boulevard.

This project will drastically change the lives of students at Rowan University and citizens of Glassboro. For the university, students will now have a new social destination to relax and shop, which is strongly lacking now. Students may also have somewhere, other than Landmark Americana, to entertain family or visitors and even a place for people to stay overnight with the hotel. This helps the families of Glassboro to have options such as holding a picnic at the local park or go shopping downtown. Perhaps there is no agenda for the day; the beautiful landscaping of Rowan Boulevard allows one to take a tranquil walk and enjoy the surroundings. In Driscoll’s view, this project creates 400 construction jobs, around 700 permanent jobs and will generate over a million in tax revenue.

According to Jessica Driscoll, Sora Holdings Principal Greg Filipek claims “I don’t think we even dreamed we’d see this much when we first sat down.” Rowan Boulevard makes the community of Glassboro a more attractive place and Rowan University more appealing to incoming students. When potential students visit Rowan, they will become excitedly interested in the social aspect and see that Rowan Boulevard provides so much student life. As one may see over time, the Rowan Boulevard will only bring positive results and reactions to and from the community.