Cherry Hill, Evesham/Marlton, Medford, Medford Lakes, Moorestown, Mount Laurel, Voorhees and elsewhere near the iconic state highways of Routes 70 and 73.
Billy Procida, who got his start in the building industry as an 18-year-old bricklayer's assistant, spent years developing properties. Now, 43 years later, he says he is in the business of picking up where others leave off.
"My specialty is finishing what other people start," Procida, president and CEO of Procida Funding and Advisors, told 70and73.com in an interview.
His latest push to get a major project over the finish line is in Cherry Hill at Garden State Park's Plaza Grande complex, which Procida purchased in July and expects to complete early next year.
A total of 224 units for people 55 and older have been finished and Procida's company now is completing the remaining 283 units.
"It's going to be like living at a country club," Prodica said of the apartments and the clubhouse, where amenities will include a golf simulator room, movie theater, yoga studio and indoor and outdoor saltwater pools. The one- and two-bedroom apartments start at $2,300 a month.
The developer's other projects have included the $60 million restoration of the Philadelphia Metropolitan Opera House, now Live Nation's The Met, and the $50 million renovation of the Divine Lorraine Hotel on North Broad Street in Philadelphia. His company participated in the financing of the Island Park at Showboat in Atlantic City.
Procida, 61, said he was enamored with Cherry Hill.
"You can't just go to a community. You've got to be part of the community," he said. "Anybody who has a project in Cherry Hill, call me."
Procida said he has "shaken every resident's hand" at the complex and threw them a party after he bought the property. He also joined between 150 and 200 construction workers on the project for a lunch he provided.
The developer, whose office is in Englewood Cliffs, Bergen County, lives on the Hudson River in New York south of the Tappan Zee Bridge.
Procida said the Plaza Grande project began under builder D.R. Horton but faced setbacks in the recession of 2008 and part of 2009. Procida's company financed a local builder that took over the project and, when the builder could not finish, Procida acquired the project for an undisclosed amount.
