Cherry Hill, Evesham/Marlton, Medford, Medford Lakes, Moorestown, Mount Laurel, Voorhees and elsewhere near the iconic state highways of Routes 70 and 73.
If you are a parent from the 70and73 area, you probably spent some time in the one-story building on Springdale Road in Cherry Hill that for 26 years was the Garden State Discovery Museum.
But the interactive, New Jersey-focused center for 2-to-10-year-olds shut down during the pandemic and never reopened. It had opened in June 1994. About a month before it closed, the nonprofit also pulled out of its management agreement for Paws Farm in Mount Laurel.
Now the empty building in the industrial park soon may reopen as a Tesla auto body shop.
Building owner Cherry Umbrella LLC is on Monday night's Township Planning Board meeting, which begins with a caucus at 5:30 p.m., followed by the meeting at 5:45 p.m.
The owner seeks approval of preliminary- and final-major-site plans, with bulk variances, to convert 34,739 square feet of the 49,592-square-foot building into a collision repair service shop for Tesla. The remainder of the building on 5.3 acres at Springdale Road and Pin Oak Lane is leased by Monster Mini-Golf.
Cherry Hill Umbrella, owned by the real estate investment firm of Endurance Real Estate Group LLC of Radnor, Pennsylvania, stated in its operating letter to the board that Tesla would run two shifts daily, from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 3 p.m. to midnight. The letter noted that there is the potential for a third shift.
Between 35 and 45 employees would work at the shop and service 60 to 80 vehicles each week, according to the letter. Between five and 15 customers would have appointments each day.
