Rowan University and Glassboro Grow Together

October 13, 2020  

Rowan University and Glassboro Grow Together

In the 1970s and 1980s, Philadelphia’s suburban expansion brought commercial development to the regional highways and residential subdivisions to the farm fields near the borough of Glassboro, New Jersey. That growth, however, bypassed Glassboro’s downtown, and in 2000, Glassboro’s merchants began meeting with government officials to discuss downtown revitalization. Rowan University, located a mile from downtown, decided that, after a decade of growth spurred by a $100 million donation, further expansion should take place off campus even though its campus contained developable land. A new era of trust between the university and the borough began as plans for redevelopment took shape. The city bought 90 properties between downtown and the campus, where the $425 million Rowan Boulevard Redevelopment Project broke ground in 2008.

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