PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Rutgers University has announced plans to develop a $215 million mixed-use project on its Livingston Campus in Piscataway. The project will contain 648,000 square feet of student housing and retail space.

The student housing component will contain a total of 1,500 beds spread over three buildings. Most of the beds will be contained in apartment-style units contain four bedrooms each with shared living rooms and kitchens. Two hundred of the beds will be aside in two-bedroom units that will be reserved for graduate students. The graduate units will be in a separate wing with its own elevator access.

A 20,000-square-foot retail plaza located at the base of one of the buildings will provide students with easy access to retail services and restaurants. Study lounges will be spread throughout the project's three buildings as well as in outdoor areas. A movie theater component for one of the buildings will be able to double as educational space, if needed. Two of the buildings will have landscaped courtyards with built-in seating and lawn areas.

Groundbreaking for the project is scheduled for this fall and will be completed by fall 2012. Shelton, Conn.-based Fletcher Thompson is serving as the architect of record, and Baltimore-based Design Collective is serving as design architect. The project is serving as the first phase of Rutgers' new master plan for its Livingston Campus.

— Coleman Wood