The Newark Community Economic Development Corporation (Newark CEDC) along with several private partners, sought to create a new center of gravity for downtown offering a safe, pedestrian-oriented, family-friendly environment and a new hub for activities by providing direct open space linkage between the downtown Newark, the Prudential Center, the Penn Station, and the Ironbound neighborhood. The park was designed to provide broad appeal to both existing residents and newcomers, the functionality to accommodate new circulation patterns with large volumes of people between the Penn Station and the Prudential Arena and the flexibility to adapt to surrounding future development scenarios.