The warehouse, right, would be next to the apartments, which are now under construction. Earlier 70and73.com coverage incorrectly reported that the loading docks would face the apartment complex.
A 162,150-square-foot warehouse with 37 loading docks will be built on Woodcrest Road in Cherry Hill where a Township plan had envisioned shops and restaurants to complement apartments now under construction there.
The Planning Board on Monday night voted unanimously to approve preliminary and final site plans from applicant NFI Real Estate of Camden. NFI is part of a national family-owned warehousing company that developed from a Vineland-area delivery business into one with 16,000 employees and more than $3 billion in revenue.
In 2018, the Township approved a redevelopment plan for the 34 acres near the Woodcrest Station of the PATCO Speedline that featured apartments, offices, shops and restaurants in a transit-oriented development. The Victory at Woodcrest Station "luxury apartment" complex of 370 units — including 53 affordable units — in six buildings now is being built.
But developers contended the post-pandemic market no longer could support the commercial side of the residential project. Township Council in December amended the plan to allow a warehouse on 15 acres of the site.
Under the original plan, the apartments were going to be called Victory West and the commercial complex Victory East, named after the Victory Refrigeration manufacturing company that operated there until 2015, when the building was demolished. The land was farmland until 1959, when it was developed for manufacturing, according to the Township.
Board member Marlyn Kalitan spoke against the project at Monday's meeting, saying she wished she could have a reason to vote against the warehouse plan. Because the Township changed the redevelopment plan, the warehouse is a permitted use.
"I'm disappointed that we had this wonderful plan," Kalitan told the board. "It almost feels like every other meeting now we have these bait-and-switch meetings where we start out with a wonderful plan and we end up with a plan that isn't so wonderful."
Kalitan said she "couldn't imagine that Victory West is going to be able to fill those apartments" when they look onto a warehouse complex with a tree buffer that could take 50 years to mature. The warehouse's loading docks will be on the opposite side of the building from the apartment complex.
Although the warehouse design is more appealing than most warehouses, she added, "it's still truck after truck after truck going in there."
NFI representatives said the warehouse is being built on spec and that, depending on tenants, could operate 24 hours a day. It likely will have about 100 employees, they said.
During the public hearing, Sara Joslin of Forge Road told the board that the Township had at one time seen that part of Woodcrest Road as transit-oriented, encouraging commuters.
She was told the warehouse would have bicycle racks on the property for employees. Company representatives also said an eight-foot-wide sidewalk would be added on Woodcrest Road with a seven-foot-wide planter strip separating it from the road.
Martha Wright of Munn Lane also reminded the board that the Victory West and East development was going to be transit-oriented. She said she hoped some employees would use public transit, such as the nearby PATCO Speedline.
