So long? Barclay Pavilion office building on Route 70 in Cherry Hill likely not long for this world.

The Barclay Pavilion office building, which has anchored a corner of the Barclay Farm Shopping Center in Cherry Hill for 52 years, soon may disappear in a cloud of dust.

A Township zoning permit has been issued to the owner of the Route 70 shopping center to demolish the 45,374-square-foot vacant building, according to Township Community Development Director Cosmas Diamantis. A demolition permit now needs to be issued.

The building was constructed by Scarborough Construction Co., which moved its headquarters into it in December 1970. Scarborough built the shopping center and the Barclay Farm subdivision, and at the time was building the Wexford Leas development on the east side of Cherry Hill.

Barclay Pavilion sits on part of the site that would become a Super Wawa if Barclay center owner Hortense Associates LP of Philadelphia gets the approval of the Township Planning Board. The company applied in April 2021 and testimony about the project has yet to be heard by the board.

Hortense Associates has faced deep dissension in the community over the project, especially among Barclay Farm neighbors, who formed the Preserve Barclay movement and hired a land-use lawyer to fight the proposal. 

"I just find it astounding that they would choose to knock it down," Martha Wright, a Preserve Barclay organizer, told 70and73.com. "I just look at it and say, 'what a terrible waste.' "

Wright said Hortense Associates' Planning Board application for the Super Wawa was set to expire in September, but she said Preserve Barclay's attorney has been notified that Hortense has filed for an extension. 

While some proposals make it through planning boards quickly, the Barclay Super Wawa plan is so contentious that it could take three meetings of testimony before the board votes, Wright said. 

An article in The Philadelphia Inquirer in December 1970 announced that Scarborough was moving into the new, $1.2-million Barclay Pavilion building from former offices at Route 70 and East Gate Drive.

"Scarborough launched his home building enterprise in early 1946, with one assistant," according to the article. "Scarborough did all the carpentry work on the initial residences he built. Today, the Scarborough Group employs more than 250 at the peak of each construction season."

Read More 

• How a new Super Wawa likely will erase a bit of Cherry Hill history.
• Ever-growing Wawa: Loving them, hating them at the same time as Super Wawas roll out in the region.
• Barclay Farm Shopping Center owner working with neighbors to make redevelopment more acceptable.
• Preserve Barclay | Facebook