At a time when regulation impacting colleges and universities has steadily increased, institutional leaders have explored ways to maximize their educational effectiveness, impact, and public contribution to their surrounding communities. Public colleges and universities often use public-private partnerships to develop institutionally owned or managed spaces on and surrounding their campuses. As a result, institutional stakeholders are infused with existing community neighborhoods, cultures and structures, which often results in permanent change imposed on these neighbors and neighborhoods. Using a comparative case study approach, this exploratory research explored the relationship between campus stakeholders utilizing campus and private recreational spaces and their sense of belonging to the campus environment in the neighborhood areas in a newly developed area. The study involved the use of interviews and facilitated conversations determine: (a) how campus stakeholders' sense of belonging is impacted using newly developed recreational space in their neighborhood and (b) how new public recreational space demographically and socially influences the surrounding community. The case in this study is a newly developed community park dedicated to the community it resides in. It also is a recreational space in a downtown, urban city. The space is partially managed and funded by a private developer, two major institutions of higher education, and the local government.