Billionaire philanthropist Leon Cooperman spent a lot on the hat he was wearing with the NJPAC logo. “I’m at a stage in my life where I’m swapping money for apparel,” Cooperman, 81, a former Goldman Sachs partner and Omega Advisors founder,

NJPAC broke ground on a $336 million redevelopment of its downtown Newark campus, which includes hundreds of new apartments, retail, cultural and cultural spaces, and a new urban park.

An unlikely player is behind a massive development project aiming to deliver a bundle of residential and retail space to Newark. The New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark is breaking ground on a mixed-use retail,