The Hahne & Co. building on Broad St. in Newark has reopened its doors. It’s transformed into much more than a department store.
Many Newarkers remember it as the ‘Hahne’s’ building. The 21st century version will house the city’s first Whole Foods, a restaurant from celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, and housing units both luxury and affordable. Mayor Ras Baraka says 65 of those will be affordable housing units.
“I know that there are people in the audience who are wondering that, but we didn’t miss it. I know folks are saying development is happening in Newark without Newarkers, but not on our watch. Development is going to happen in this city, but we’re all going to be included in it,” Baraka says.
Rutgers University Newark is getting a new Barnes & Noble and arts center in the building.
“That we can go seamlessly from civil infrastructure to social infrastructure, and that’s what Hahne’s means to us. It certainty means that Rutgers University Newark is genuinely of Newark, not just in Newark,” Cantor says.
US Senator Cory Booker says reopening the Hahne’s building was a goal of his while in office as city mayor.
“There was a great mayor, and Mayor Baraka knows this, he’s building on the momentum that came before him. I built on the momentum of mayors before me, there was a mayor named Mayor Gibson who famously said ‘wherever American cities are going, Newark will get there first.’ This is a project demonstrating that that is true.”
The Hahne’s building was dormant since the mid- 1980’s.