UPDATE: The Bergman Real Estate Group and Capstone Realty Group USA on September 12 announced the completion of the purchase of the Barclay Farms Shopping Center in Cherry Hill for $16.1 million. The buyers noted that a 45,000-square-foot parcel (the old owners tore down the Pavilion office building) is ready for development. The center, purchased from Kaiserman Company Inc., of Philadelphia, is 96% occupied, according to Bergman's news release.
Our July article:
The Barclay Farms Shopping Center in Cherry Hill, the subject of an 18-month community controversy that developed after plans were disclosed to build a Super Wawa on the site, is being sold by its Philadelphia-based owner.
Kaiserman Company Inc., of Philadelphia, operating as Hortense Associates LP, filed a change of ownership notice with the Township on June 22, according to documents provided to 70and73.com under an Open Public Records Act request.
Michael Bergman, president and CEO of the Bergman Real Estate Group, on Wednesday confirmed in an email that his company has the property under contract to buy, with closing planned in August.Â
"We are looking forward to becoming part of this community," Bergman wrote. His company is based in Iselin, part of Woodbridge, Middlesex County.
Specific plans for the shopping center will not be available until after the deal closes.
Current owner Hortense Associates filed an application with the Township in April 2021 to demolish several buildings at the western end of the shopping center, near an entrance to the Barclay Farm development, and build a Super Wawa with a gasoline station.
After the plans were disclosed in a 70and73.com article in early June 2021, some residents of Barclay Farms and nearby developments mobilized, established a Preserve Barclay Facebook group, hired a land-use lawyer and organized a campaign against the Super Wawa.
The now-demolished Barclay Pavilion office building.
The application never made it to the Township Planning Board, with Hortense dropping the project and submitting a letter withdrawing the application on December 21, 2022.
However, Hortense in October did demolish the disused 45,374-square-foot Barclay Pavilion office building on the site. The office building once housed the offices of Scarborough builders, which constructed the shopping center and the Barclay Farm development.
After the controversy, Cherry Hill Township early this year tightened its zoning regulations to prevent a development combining food service with gasoline sales, which likely prevents more Super Wawa stores from opening in the town. The zoning law change also states that new gasoline stations must be built on lots of at least one acre and must be the sole use of the site.
Cherry Hill resident Martha Wright, a community advocate who was one of the leaders of the Preserve Barclay movement, this week said she was surprised to learn of the sale.
"The Kaiserman family has been invested in the Barclay Farms Shopping Center for over 40 years, and good stewards for many decades," she said in an email to 70and73.com.
"I'm hopeful the new owners, who are primarily invested in office space, will use this opportunity to both diversify their real estate portfolio and infuse new life into the site with a re-imagination of what the Barclay Farms Shopping Center is and can be," Wright stated. "Looking forward to the next chapter!"
