Rendering of the Children of America facility.
The owner of the 40-year-old office complex at Chapel Avenue and Haddonfield Road in Cherry Hill will go before the Township zoning board on Thursday to seek site-plan approval to add two retail locations and a day care center with a playground.
The Center at Cherry Hill LLC of Brooklyn, New York in July was granted a use variance for the project on the property, which is zoned for offices.Â
Board members on Thursday will review the preliminary and final major site plans and bulk variances for a 10,000-square-foot day care center with a 5,828-square-foot playground on the east side of the complex.
The owner of 1800-1820 Chapel Avenue also will present plans for a 2,467-square-foot quick-service restaurant and 2,527-square-foot retail space on the west side. The three existing office buildings will remain.
Earlier testimony from the applicant's lawyer contended that this "Class A" office complex, like others elsewhere, is suffering from vacancies in a post-pandemic leasing environment.
"It's the sagging, changing, worrisome office climate that we find ourselves in," Damien O. Del Duca, of Del Duca Lewis LLC of Haddonfield, told board members last December when he appeared before the board to represent The Center.
Some office complex owners are demolishing the buildings and repurposing the space for warehouses or other more viable uses. In Mount Laurel, the Township recently purchased and moved into an empty office building formerly leased by Lockheed Martin.
Detailed information on the plans is available at the Township Zoning Board of Adjustment website. The meeting on Thursday will be held remotely on Zoom.
Site plan showing the three existing office buildings (top), the daycare facility on the right and the two retail establishments.
Tenants for the two retail spaces have yet to be named, although the early discussion included a Starbucks.
Children of America day care would operate the center for an estimated 185 children ages 5 and under, plus an afterschool program, according to application documents. The hours of operation will be 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., the applicant's operating plan notes.
The applicant's traffic consultant estimates the day care center would generate 66 new trips in and 56 new trips out during the morning peak hour. In the afternoon peak hour, 32 new in-trips and 35 new out-trips would be added to the traffic around the office complex.
Children of America would employ 25 people at 80% occupancy of the center.
The owner also asks for a parking variance: 596 parking spaces for the full 13-acre site would be required, but 495 are planned.
Individuals with a 10% or larger interest in The Center at Cherry Hill LLC are Lean Waldman, Yidel Guttman, Joseph Lefhowitz and Yaalhov Gross all of Brooklyn, according to the zoning application.
