If the Voorhees zoning board approves, this office building and parking garage would be converted to a total of 112 senior apartments in two phases.
Following a national trend of converting office buildings to other uses, a developer wants to transform offices and a parking garage near the Voorhees Town Center to senior housing.
The Laurel Road 185,000-square-foot building, next to the Camden County Library, would be turned into an eight-floor, 96-unit senior rental apartment complex, according to the application for the first phase of the project before the Township zoning board from Pinnacle Luxury Residences LLC of New Hope, Pennsylvania.
The property now is owned by 201 Laurel Road Voorhees LLC of Stamford, Connecticut.
Zoning board members are scheduled to hear testimony from the developer on Thursday evening at 7.
Pinnacle states in its application that the office building is "mostly vacant" and is asking for a board decision on Phase 1 of the project.
A rendering of the proposed senior apartment complex.
Phase 2, which would come later, would include the conversion of the top deck of the parking garage to 16 more senior apartments and amenities, including a pool, clubhouse and pickleball courts for use by tenants, according to the application. The complex also will get a fine-dining restaurant, wine-tasting room, billiard room, movie theater, indoor pool and fitness area, the application states.
The restaurant would have 65 customer seats and cover 4,486 square feet, according to information provided to the Township by the applicant.
When complete, the complex would have 36 one-bedroom units and 76 two-bedroom units. The complete project would have 260 parking spaces, including ground level and in the parking structure.
Apartments are a permitted use in the zone where the building is located.
However, a Township ordinance also states that only non-residential uses are permitted on lots where a non-residential use existed as of July 1999.
"Since there is a conflict between this provision and the otherwise permitted nature of the proposed redevelopment, the applicant seeks a determination by the zoning board," the application states.
Pinnacle Luxury Residences also seeks a use variance for the project on the 4.8-acre site because the maximum density permitted is 6.7 units an acre for low- or mid-rise buildings and 1.7 units per acre for a high rise. The applicant wants 23.4 units per acre in the eight-story building.
"The site also presently has an abundance of parking available, and the proposed adaptive re-use of both the building and the parking deck would create a dynamic living arrangement while making use of existing infrastructure that would further support the Town Center redevelopment efforts while minimizing any disruption of surrounding uses during redevelopment," according to the application.
The two owners of Pinnacle are listed as R. Steven Scherfel of Fancy Gap, Virginia and Benjamin F. Miller of New Hope, Pennsylvania.
Traffic for the age-restricted apartments and restaurant would be greatly reduced compared with existing traffic estimates for the office building, according to the developer's traffic consultant, McMahon Associates | Bowman of Burlington.
