The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, a world-class facility that will host four companies in a state-of-the-art 22-story building that features two theaters, three rehearsal stages and 240 apartments in the heart of the city, is close to becoming a reality.

The project, which has been on the drawing board for more than a decade, will break ground this summer with a goal of opening in the summer of 2019, developer Chris Paladino, the president of New Brunswick Development Corp., told NJBIZ.

The project, which Paladino calls the “biggest public-private partnership in state history,” will cost $190 million.

The building will go up across the street from the Heldrich Hotel, on the spot that currently houses the George Street Playhouse and the Crossroads Theatre. Those two companies will be joined at the new facility by the American Repertory Ballet and the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, Paladino said.