SCC Receives NJ Future 2004 Smart Growth Award

Advocacy Group Recognizes State Agency for Roebling Community School

Newark, NJ (May 5, 2004) - Jersey Schools Construction Corporation (SCC) has received a New Jersey Future 2004 Smart Growth Award for its innovative Roebling Community School project in the Trenton Public School District that will restore a historic cable-making factory and help revitalize the neighborhood in the state capital.

Governor McGreevey congratulates Jack Spencer, SCC CEO, for SCC’s smart growth approach to Roebling Community School

John F. Spencer, CEO of SCC, accepted the award at a dinner May 5 at the Newark Club hosted by New Jersey Future, the state’s largest smart-growth advocacy group, which is both nonprofit and nonpartisan. The Smart Growth Awards honor local officials, developers and corporations for their outstanding work in promoting the healthy growth of communities statewide and strengthening the prosperity and future of New Jersey.

“SCC, in partnership with Trenton Public Schools, is extremely honored to be recognized by New Jersey Future for its smart growth approach to Roebling Community School,” Spencer said. “It is another example of the progress being made in New Jersey ’s unprecedented school construction initiative undertaken as part of Governor McGreevey’s visionary goal to revitalize New Jersey’s schools and communities.”

Spencer said SCC is due to break ground later this year for construction of the new $57 million Roebling Community School and the $126 million expansion of Trenton Central High School. Spencer noted that these projects are in addition to seven school projects, totaling over $90 million, that SCC currently has under way in Trenton.

Designed by Trenton architectural firm Clarke, Caton and Hintz, the Roebling School will be a new, state-of-the-art educational facility providing a technology-focused curriculum for 1,200 Kindergarten-through-8th grade students when completed in 2007. It also will serve as a community center after school, weekends and during summer break.

Last year, the Governor designated the Roebling site as the first project in his School Renaissance Zone program

The school project will involve restoration and extensive renovation of several buildings, totaling 171,460 square feet of space, at the historic Roebling factory complex that produced steel cable for suspension bridges, notably the Brooklyn Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge and Benjamin Franklin Bridge, and for elevators and early commercial aircraft. The 6.5-acre site itself – with preserved cranes, machinery, rail line fragments, signage and other items used at the industrial complex – will be part of the teaching curriculum. The exterior courtyard and surrounding recreational areas will create a campus-like learning and social setting for the benefit of the children and community of Trenton.

Last year, the Governor designated the Roebling site as the first project in his School Renaissance Zone program, a concept designed to spur redevelopment and investment in older neighborhoods with schools that benefit entire communities as the focal point. Roebling School will complement the existing neighborhood revitalization that began with the construction of the Housing and Mortgage Financing Agency headquarters and a retail center. There is growing private sector interest in the area, and pending projects include the Trenton Foundry, Invention Factory Museum and major retail development.

Aerial view of project

“The SCC projects in Trenton are truly extraordinary. They are harbingers of the city’s rapid transformation and will provide state-of-the-art facilities for Trenton’s children for decades to come,” said Dr. James H. Lytle, Trenton School Superintendent.

Other recipients of the NJ Future 2004 Smart Growth Awards include Camden County Division of Planning for redevelopment in Collingswood; Dranoff Properties, Inc. for redeveloping Camden’s landmark RCA Victor building; Eastampton for embracing smart growth design principles for future township development; Harrison for its mixed-use and transit-oriented development along the lower Passaic River; Metuchen for its 20-year commitment to revitalizing its town center; and Salem for saving a city neighborhood from abandonment and creating a vibrant, eco-friendly residential community.

NJ Future also recognized SJP Properties with its Smart Growth Leadership Award for its smart growth design for new buildings on New Jersey’s Hudson River waterfront.

For more information on the 2004 Smart Growth Awards visit New Jersey Future.

Some of the recipients of the NJ Future 2004 Smart Growth Awards with Governor McGreevey Steve Pozycki, SJP Properties, Carl Dranoff, Dranoff Properties, Inc., Phil Grossman, Fleet Bank, Bank of America, Jack Spencer, SCC CEO and Governor James E. McGreevey

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