Victory Redevelopment Study Ready for Planning Board

Redevelopment efforts started last month in the search for a possible new home for Subaru in Cherry Hill could be one step closer to fruition, well ahead of the planned schedule, and up for consideration by the Cherry Hill planning board next week.

A preliminary study for a redevelopment plan for the Victory Refrigeration site, one of the two commissioned by the Cherry Hill township council in June, will be complete and heard at the planning board's first August meeting, according to a legal notice issued by the township Thursday.

Originally, township officials said it could be three or four months before either redevelopment study was complete, but the Victory site's will go up for public hearing after less than two months.

The 35-acre property on Woodcrest Road, which is directly across the street from the Woodcrest Corporate Center, one of the township’s other seven redevelopment zones, is currently home to a 250,000-square-foot facility that dates to the mid-1960s.

Township officials have said the site, which is owned by the Vineland Construction Corporation, may be significantly underused, and noted its close proximity to the Woodcrest PATCO stop and the Route 295 off-ramp that serves Woodcrest Road as factors that could entice full development of the property.

“The Victory plant was built for a different time, a time when Cherry Hill’s economy relied on manufacturing,” said township council President David Fleisher when the council OK'd the studies. “We need to revitalize this property and bring it to 21st-century standards, to attract important tax ratables and further enhance the local economy.”

While the study of the Victory site is ostensibly to determine if redevelopment could help turn it into a modern office facility to suit any business, local officials have made no secret of the fact that both redevelopment studies are aimed at keeping Subaru, which is being courted by Philadelphia’s Navy Yard, inside the township’s borders.

“You don't want to lose the jobs, you don't want to lose that marquee name,” township spokeswoman Bridget Palmer said previously.

Close to 900 employees from various locations could be moved into a new space, according to Michael McHale, the company’s director of corporate communications, which is the focus of trying to find a suitable location, rather than other concerns.

Subaru officials have said they’re looking for a space almost double the size of their current headquarters along the Cooper River, a 115,000-square-foot office tower on a 13-acre property that's maxed out, with no room for growth, and could make a move in the next two years to new digs.

“It's been driven from an operational standpoint,” he said after news broke this winter of the possibility of the Japanese automaker finding a new headquarters.

The second study, on a smaller parcel of land earmarked for an off-track betting site at the Marketplace at Garden State Park, won’t be part of the first August planning board meeting.

Of the two plans, that one received vocal opposition from developers, who insisted their plan for the off-track betting site was still valid at least through the end of next year.

“I understand the township is frustrated with the slow pace of development,” said attorney Barbara Casey of Ballard Spahr, who represents the developers, GS Park Racing LP, at the June meeting where the council approved both studies. “My client has long-term plans for this site as part of its overall business plan…we will be taking every action that is necessary to challenge any attempt to move this redevelopment designation forward.”

The public hearing on the Victory site will be part of the planning board’s Aug. 5 meeting, which starts at 7:30 p.m., following a 7 p.m. caucus meeting.

If the study clears the planning board, it would go back to township council for approval.

If either redevelopment zone is approved, it could be part of a package of incentives, including efforts from the state and county, presented to Subaru to persuade company officials to stay in Cherry Hill, officials said.