This past Friday, BASF and the Borough of East Newark marked the official opening of the East Newark Riverfront Park, a five-acre green space developed on a former industrial site along the Passaic River. The ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated the culmination of a multi-year effort with federal natural resource trustees to restore and transform the property.

NEWARK, NJ — Since Newark’s founding in the mid-1600s, the growth and prosperity of the city has been closely linked to the Passaic River. Yet for many decades, the community was alienated from the river in virtually every way.

That’s been changing in New Jersey’s largest city, which recently celebrated the opening of a new extension at Riverfront Park.