The Campus Gateway Project is one of NJIT's key planning initiatives to improve the amenities available to the campus and local community.  Enhancing campus life and the neighborhood around NJIT are important to the growth of NJIT as an urban university.

In 2006, NJIT began conversations with partners in the community, such as St. Michael’s Hospital and the James Street Association, to pursue this goal with work done around and by the University of Pennsylvania as a model.  As a first step, NJIT signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Newark giving NJIT exclusive right to plan the redevelopment of the area.