Tsionas invests $100M+ in Newark’s Continental apartments
NEWARK — A six-story student apartment complex is under construction as longtime Newark property owner Tsionas Management looks to reimagine a major block that’s part of the college town’s landscape.
The Continental is a 190-unit apartment complex that is in the works, replacing two separate apartment complexes on the block from Haines Street to South Chapel Street.
Tsionas Management estimates it is at least a $100 million project and will be open for tenants by fall 2026. Billed as a luxury complex, the Continental will include a mix of studio, two-, three- and four-bedroom units and high-class upgrades for the first floor.
Plans show this will bring a net 117 units to the city. Tsonis did tear down the Continental Court and the University Commons to pave the way for this project.
That includes space for a coffee shop as well as a clubhouse that features a lounge, game room area and a few quiet room working spaces. Designed and built by GGA Construction, there are also lounge areas on each floor.
The footprint of the building is 537,000 square feet, but the total livable space is estimated at 315,000 square feet, according to GGA Construction Project Manager Rodderick Johnson.
At a time when Newark is evolving to include taller hotels and apartments on Main Street and the live-shop-play concept is coming alive at the Grove, Angela Tsionas of Tsionas Properties said it’s time to breathe new life in an older concept.
In the past decade, the Newark market has changed where college students are less into sharing a single room– like in a dormitory– and want their own bathroom. The Continental has a bathroom for each bedroom. But there’s still a balance of sharing space with friends out there, as Tsonias said that of all the units the four bedrooms lease the fastest in Newark.
“We’ve come a long way from just living in a dorm when you live in a college,” she added. “People want their amenities now, and I think people want it in multifamily, and students want it as well.”
GGA Construction leaned heavily into the idea of the university lifestyle, with the architectural design matching the modern, brick-patterned look that has been slowly replacing the older storefronts that surround the UD Campus. Johnson, who is the lead on the project, said the floorplates remind him of the “best parts of dorm life” in a sense.
“There’s a lot of common space, which is typically the first floor of these dorms. When I lived on campus, there were these opportunities to meet our floormates, and it almost built a community. That’s what this is trying to achieve by allowing these large amenity spaces. And I really think it’s going to enhance the community aspect of this apartment building,” he said.
New Castle County Chamber of Commerce 