A rendering of the Victory Commons apartment units. The apartments are on the first or the second floors.
Construction of a $28 million affordable housing apartment project with 81 units in nine buildings is expected to start in March on Haddonfield-Berlin Road in Voorhees.
The 1223 Haddonfield-Berlin Road rental project is expected to take between 12 and 14 months to complete, Nicholas Cangelosi, senior vice president at Camden-based developer The Michaels Organization, told 70and73.com in an interview. The site is between Northgate and Southgate drives and across Haddonfield-Berlin Road from the TRI Borough Sand and Stone quarry.
Victory Commons was approved unanimously by the Planning Board in 2019, but the availability of financing delayed the start of the project, Cangelosi said. Financing is through the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency and the Home Investment Partnerships program in Camden County. The project will not pay property taxes, but will compensate the Township through a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) plan.
The development helps the Township fulfill its commitment for affordable housing under the Mount Laurel Doctrine.
Developer Voorhees Housing Associates LLC, a unit of Michaels, testified before the Planning Board that an estimated 30 to 50 students will be added to Voorhees schools.
Cangelosi last week said Michaels intends to replace trees cut down on the heavily wooded site and, when that is not possible, to fund trees planted elsewhere in the Township.
"Part of our effort is to replace as many trees as we're cutting down," Cangelosi said.
Construction will soon begin on a total of 81 apartment units on eight heavily wooded acres at 1223 Haddonfield-Berlin Road in Voorhees. The yellow boundary shows the outline of the property. Northgate Drive is at the left of the aerial photo; Southgate Drive, the right and Haddonfield-Berlin Road at the bottom.
The Voorhees Township Planning Board resolution giving its approval notes that Voorhees Housing Associates must compensate the Township $200 per tree for those not replaced on the site. That rate is for the first 199 trees, and the cost falls to $100 per tree for 200 or more.
The apartments, which have a townhouse appearance, will be either on the first floor or the second floor with private entry doors. Besides the nine residential buildings, the developer also is building a clubhouse with a gym for residents.
Half of the apartments will be 1,050 square feet and have two bedrooms. Thirty percent will be 1,295-square-foot, three-bedroom apartments. The remaining 20% will be 800-square-foot, one-bedroom apartments.
The site plan, with Haddonfield-Berlin Road at the bottom.
Cangelosi said the targeted tenants will be "key contributors to our neighborhoods" who seek what he called "attainable housing" in Voorhees. They include new firefighters, police officers, teachers or hospital workers whose incomes fall within the affordable housing restrictions.
"They work here," he said. "They want to live here and they want to play here."
Michaels does not take applications for its units until a project is about half completed, Cangelosi explained. Tenants interested should check in to the Michaels' website around that time and learn how to join the waiting list.
One of the apartments is reserved for an on-site property manager, who will work for Michaels.
