Bloomfield College has signed a five-year lease with 2 Broad Street Associates, LLC to occupy over 15,000 square feet on the mezzanine and second floors of the historic 2 Broad Street building. New classrooms, faculty and student lounges, and administrative offices will house the College’s International Training, Professional Studies and Computer Information Sciences programs.
“We are excited to bring on board Bloomfield College as the newest tenant in Bloomfield’s landmark office building at 2 Broad Street,” says 2 Broad Street Associates, LLC’s managing partner Bill Colgan. “This is going to inject new life into this building and Bloomfield’s downtown. Having Bloomfield College’s students, faculty and staff in the building will improve our local economy, support local businesses, and expand the College’s reach in the local community.”
“We are thrilled to expand our foothold into the historic 2 Broad Street building, and to offer our students a new space to learn, collaborate, and socialize,” stated Richard A. Levao, president of Bloomfield College. “This strengthens our commitment to the community and will aide in the revitalization of Bloomfield’s downtown in the coming years.”
EXCELLENT!!!!!! What a boon to the Bloomfield Center re development!!! I feel that re development plans will always fail for Montclair Center until MSU begins to populate the Montclair Center wasteland landscape…..like the successful combination Bronxville/SarahLawrence.
I agree it is a positive thing. If Bloomfield College utilizes this building for classrooms and other purposes, it takes the pressure off the historic district, where most of their buildings are.
Go B.C.!
Excellent news!!!!!!!! Maybe someone from Bloomfield College should take over the redevelopment of Bloomfield Center, THEY would do a much better and faster job than
the idiots in charge now, who are making bloomfield center a nightmare wasteland! GO
BLOOMFIELD COLLEGE!!!!!!!
Frankgg, there a long row of abandoned buildings along bloomfield ave in Montclair that MSU could commandeer, reuse or redevelop as a satellite school. Hope springs eternal.
This is definitely a step in the right direction for Bloomfield.
From a NIMBY perspective I have to disagree with this plan. BC taking over the Frank M. Leo building is a good idea, as long as no student or faculty member has to drive there. They are also taking over the travel agency on the corner of Broad and Franklin as well as all the empty stores leading to the liquor store. They are going to knock down that area and put a 15 story dormitory there. Again, great idea as long as nobody has to drive. The streets are already packed with student’s cars. Bloomfield College needs to address parking, especially if they are going to expand.
On a side note, they have done a wonderful job restoring homes in the area and making them administrative offices. I am happy BC is here and contributing, I just don’t think they care about parking or their neighbors
The parking issue at BC is because they sell parking passes to the student for their lot but they over sell them and students get burnt when they purchase one and yet can’t get into the lot – so the following semester they don’t bother with the pass and park on the street.
I’ve been a student at BC and calling it a college is using that word fast and lose. There are some great professors there and there are some blobs of meat with tenure. If they run their redevelopment like they run their school prepare for a clusterf***. It might be better for them to use space that is already established then try and develop anything on their own. If their math department is any clue expect construction workers whose foreman’s last job was as an avon lady.
First, Bloomfield has no “downtown!” It has the Center. And I find it distressing that a school that wants to take it over and has been located there for eons doesn’t even know that. Not a good sign.
Second, I agree with Jimmytown. I’m glad to have the college — where it is. It is bad planning for it to be taking over the center as an expanded college — that will serve to relegate the center to nothing but commuters running through and otherwise being little other than a college campus. But the Center should reflect ALL of Bloomfield and be a place for all to go, not just such narrow and transient influences.
@Jimmytown: the proposed dorm is only three stories, with the first floor dedicated to retail business. As far as using the Leo building, the vast majority of students, staff, and faculty will probably walk over from campus, using existing campus parking. Some years ago the college held some classes there, and most folks just walked over.
The Biology and Environmental Studies Department is excellent- especially Dr. Russo
https://www.bloomfield.edu/academics/Divisions/math_staff.aspx
3 stories is better than 15, that’s for sure.
Definitely. I saw the architect’s plan, and the building should have a brick exterior (sort of like the Camden Yards area look). The hope is to have a bookstore and a cafe on the ground floor, as well as other retail ventures. These will help to increase business activity, hopefully!
Actually im looking at the artist’s rendition now and it appears that it is about 6 stories high
https://www.bloomfield.edu/images/OTG_Spring_2012.pdf
The Franklin Street
Residence Hall
The College-owned building at the corner of Broad and Franklin Streets
will be demolished and in its place will be a six-story residence hall
and retail space. The first floor will be leased to retailers with the upper
five floors dedicated to resident students. The residential life offices will
be housed there as well. Students that would be living in the University
Center in Newark would be housed closer to campus and the ITPS students
from around the world would also share this space. The new building will
be 124,000 square feet of space with about 8,000 of that space devoted to
retail leasing. The board of trustees gave its approval to proceed and currently
the College is going before the Township of Bloomfield to secure the
proper permits.
You are right, Jimmytown. That drawing I saw was some years ago, and was obviously a preliminary design and not what they ended up with. Six stories seems a bit too much to me. Hopefully the retail space will work out. I’ve known folks who worked in the travel agent on the corner.
5 story College building and 5 story where the Annie Sez is- it will be the canyonland of Bloomfield
OOPS – corrected 6 (six) story college building- have to check on the Annie Sez plans thery may be 6 story as well