It sits on South College Avenue, a sprawling, 270-acre reminder of both dreams ended and dreams about to take off. It opened in the 1950s as a bustling tank factory, supporting American troops in Korea and energizing a sleepy farming town, and later switched to supplying Americans with cars and hundreds of Newarkers with good paying jobs. But now, it sits vacant, its machinery idle, its smokestacks clear, its employees laid off -- the victim of a bad economy and America's growing desire for more efficient cars.

But in the emptiness that is Chrysler's Newark Assembly Plant, University of Delaware officials see a new future: An opportunity to create a gateway to the university's main campus. A partnership with Jefferson University to create a new clinical medical campus. An expanded train station to make it easier to access Newark and the university by rail. A technology park that would facilitate research, and most importantly, allow the university to profit from that innovation. The site is the future of the university, UD President Patrick Harker says, and an opportunity that comes only once in a lifetime.

The papers have been signed, the toasts have been made -- the University of Delaware now owns the Chrysler property. Yet, the challenges still remain. Underneath the buildings and the asphalt and the soil, contamination lurks, a product of 50 years of auto manufacturing and paint production. Reports have identified 12 areas of contamination on the site, and experts say the clean-up will be exhausting.

With demolition and clean-up of the plant expected to take up to three years and construction to take several more, there's no doubt that the next decade of university history will be dominated by planning and debate over the Chrysler property. It's within that context that The Review brings you this special report.