The Princeton Council has awarded a contract to a planning consultant to study how the former Westminster Choir College campus could best be used to meet the needs of the town.
Topology LLC was awarded a contract for $115,000 at the Princeton Council’s Feb. 10 meeting. The consultant is based in Newark.
Last fall, the Princeton Council approved a pair of ordinances to acquire the former campus of the Westminster Choir College from Rider University. It has been mostly vacant since Rider moved the choir college to its Lawrence Township campus in 2020.
The town’s acquisition of the campus presents a potentially unprecedented opportunity to create community benefits, achieve local planning objectives and leave a legacy that will benefit future generations of Princetonians, according to the proposal prepared by Topology LLC.
“Given the stakes of the project, Topology’s proposed scope of work is designed to help the municipality answer a very simple question – how should the Westminster Choir College site be reimagined to best meet the long-term needs of the Princeton community,” according to the proposal.
Selecting the right project will require the town to answer many interrelated questions – what is physically possible on the site and what is the relationship between the reuse of the campus and other municipal properties, the proposal stated.
The study will suggest a preferred alternative among three options. It will include a concept diagram, a financial feasibility assessment and an implementation plan.
The Princeton Council took its first steps to acquire the 23-acre property, which has frontage on Hamilton Avenue, Walnut Lane and Franklin Avenue, after it adopted an ordinance authorizing its acquisition from Rider University “by negotiation, purchase, condemnation or eminent domain.”
The Princeton Council also adopted a $50 million bond ordinance that earmarked $42 million for the purchase price and $8 million to cover expenses related to the acquisition.
Rider University acquired the choir college and its campus through a merger in 1992. Rider decided in 2016 to sell the college for financial reasons and launched a worldwide search for a buyer who would keep it in Princeton.
Rider University found a buyer in a commercial, Chinese government-owned entity known as Beijing Kaiwen Educational Technology, Ltd. The deal fell through in 2019.
Following the failed deal, Rider University announced plans to consolidate and move the choir college to its Lawrence Township campus.
The announcement triggered two lawsuits filed by Westminster Choir College students and the Westminster Foundation in 2018 and 2019 to block the move. The foundation, whose members include faculty, former board members, donors and alumni, is not affiliated with the choir college.
The students sued to block the sale of the Princeton campus. Both the students and the Westminster Foundation opposed the move to Rider University’s campus because they claimed Rider would be unable to match the specialized facilities at the Princeton campus.
But Rider University claimed the students did not have the right to go to court to protect the school. Rider asserted that it was the only body that could make decisions regarding the Westminster Choir College.
Meanwhile, the litigation has been stayed while the parties continue to work toward a settlement, said Kristine Brown, the vice president of External Affairs for Rider University.
