Rowan University, a public institution, is finalizing an unusual $1-billion deal with a real-estate developer and Major League Soccer that will result in the construction of a sports stadium, student housing, stores, and restaurants on a 600-acre tract of land that Rowan owns a mile west of its campus, in Glassboro, N.J. The deal, which was described today in an article by the Associated Press, still depends on the soccer league’s ability to find a tenant for the stadium.

The league announced today that it would place an expansion team in the stadium, but it still needs to award the franchise. Once team owners and a developer are chosen, the project could proceed, according to the AP. In return for a lease on the property, the developer would provide Rowan with new facilities for all of its sports teams. The university, located in a fast-growing region of southern New Jersey across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, has been transformed since it received a $100-million gift, in 1992 (The Chronicle, December 8, 1995).