Newark celebrates opening of $10M Mulberry Commons park

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Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and other dignitaries and officials cut the ribbon to open Mulberry Commons, a $10 million private/public development project in Newark’s downtown, Thursday on Mulberry Street between Lafayette Street and Edison Place, opposite Prudential Center, in downtown Newark.

Also in attendance were the Newark Municipal Council, Interim Deputy Mayor of Economic and Housing Development Natasha Rogers, Newark Community Economic Development Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer Bernel Hall, J&L Cos., Sage and Coombe Architects, Boraie Development, Supermass Studio Landscape Architect, and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.

Mulberry Commons is a milestone in Newark’s economic development, creating a new center of gravity in the city’s growing downtown and unlocking the long-ignored development potential of Newark’s Penn Station, one of the nation’s busiest rail hubs. It will create housing, a shopping area, and a public park, while providing a walkway from Newark Penn Station to Prudential Center. This walkway will enable people going to and from the arena – the nation’s seventh busiest – to get to and from it easily.

Mulberry Commons open space development will open a vast area of undeveloped land to residential and office development. The district is further bolstered by the world-wide marketability of Prudential Center, the high ranking sports and entertainment venue; hosting more than 175 concerts, family shows, special events and sporting events annually and home to the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards and the GRAMMY Museum Experience Prudential Center.