A TOD Grows in Trenton

"Having grown up blocks from Trenton's rail station, Dan Brenna has taken the train thousands of times since childhood. At some point over the years, the developer realized there was something not quite right about his hometown stop. "When you get off the train in other cities, there are buildings, people, action all around you," Brenna recently said. "Not Trenton. There's nothing but empty buildings, parking lots, and weeds. I thought, 'Either I'm missing something or there's a real opportunity here.'"

Brenna is now one of three developers jockeying to build atop those weed-choked lots adjacent to the station, where he plans to develop the Vista Center, a 25-story, 700,000-square-foot office tower designed by RMJM. Those plans have in turn been driven by the station itself, where the finishing touches are being put on an $80 million renovation and expansion that has transformed what many locals once joked was nothing more than a Roy Rogers with a rail platform attached.

But the new station, designed by New York's di Domenico + Partners, is not the only thing that makes the surrounding neighborhoods ripe for redevelopment."