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Developers set date for $80M Newark ‘Shaq Tower’ opening

New Brunswick-based Boraie Development and Newark native and former National Basketball Association superstar Shaquille O’Neal have set June 20 as the date for the opening of their $80 million rental project in downtown Newark, NJ.com reported. The joint venture behind the so-called Shaq Tower, also known as One Rector Street, plans to deliver 168 units and 20,000 square feet of retail space. Studios in the building are starting at $1,800 a month, one-bedrooms at $1,950 and two-bedrooms at $2,700. Multiple outlets reported that the project is the first market-rate high-rise in Newark in more than a half-century. The site of the Shaq Tower, also known as 50 Rector Park, once was occupied by a brewery built around 1860. The property subsequently housed a succession of local colleges and the Science Park High School, the latter of which left the site in 2013 and was demolished two years ago. According to ROI-NJ, New York-based general contractor Gilbane Building Company was tapped to serve as project manager for the Shaq Tower, and Boraie and O’Neal are also at work on another $150 million, 350-unit tower near the Ironside Newark development, according to ROI-NJ. The Real Deal reported in 2013 that O’Neal and Boraie, founded by Egyptian immigrant Omar Boraie, were also joint venture partners on an Atlantic City project that would include market-rate housing, a theater and street-level retail. Boraie debuted its roughly $85 million Beach at South Inlet mixed-use project in Atlantic City last year.

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