Camden County Board Of Social Services Where To Park?

STRATFORD – The Christmas tree went up at a Mexican eating place here this week —just in time for the owner to bask an early present.

"That'south awesome!" exulted Yeraldin Guerrero after learning Camden County was buying the battered and deserted building, a former Bradlees discount department store, next to her eating house.

Officials program to rebuild the hulking structure to create a 110,000-square-human foot habitation for the county'southward Board of Social Services.

The project, to be completed in 18 to 24 months, would bring 500 county employees — and an estimated 700 daily visitors — to a now-rundown strip centre off the White Horse Freeway virtually New Road.

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That's a lot of potential customers for Tejas Grill, Guerrero'southward family unit-owned restaurant that's survived a dozen years adjacent to the vacant edifice.

"We've tried to do the best we tin can do," said Guerrero. "We've put upwardly with that building for a long time."

The project's likewise a big boost for an ongoing redevelopment project at the 22-acre site, currently anchored by a former supermarket that'south at present a Goodwill store.

Construction is expected to be underway by next year on cleared country that will concord a Royal Farms convenience store and a Dollar General outlet, according to the redeveloper, Brandywine Existent Estate Management Services Corp.

The Bradlees project also represents a change of plans for the county'southward social services unit of measurement, which is now housed in the Aletha R. Wright Administration Building next to Camden's City Hall.

Officials initially proposed moving the lath to a planned complex at 2600 Mountain Ephraim Ave. near the city'due south border with Haddon Township.

But a new building proposed for that site, once envisioned equally large every bit 178,000 square feet, has been downsized to 65,000 to 75,000 square feet.

"It became cost-prohibitive," Christopher Orlando, interim executive manager of the county'southward Comeback Authority, said of the initial plan. He besides noted parking problems with the larger building.

Then, the Mount Ephraim Avenue site will agree several county and state agencies when it opens in fall 2022 — simply not social services.

Terminal costs for the projects can't be determined yet, according to the county. Just putting social services in the renovated Bradlees will reduce the overall expense by nearly $30 million, Orlando said.

The county'due south freeholders approved the purchase of the Bradlees building for $five.1 million at their Nov. 14 meeting. The edifice is a relic of a discount chain that declared defalcation in 2000 and airtight its final stores one yr later.

"If yous have an obstruction, you find your fashion around it," said Freeholder Carmen Rodriguez, liaison for social services. "That's what we're doing."

The Stratford site also will offer improve weather condition, improve service and improve access, predicted Christine Hentisz, the board'southward director.

"I'thousand very excited," she said in an interview Tuesday.

She noted difficult conditions at her unit's current headquarters, a converted Lit Brothers department store that looms over a city cake.

The edifice's entry area has limited space, and then clients sometimes must wait outside, she noted. Employees and visitors must travel between floors on aging escalators and sometimes-unnerving elevators.

And in dissimilarity to the mausoleum-similar Wright building, the rebuilt Bradlees "volition have windows," Rodriguez said.

"It will also accept a much better flow," she said of the single-floor layout.

The Stratford site is on a motorcoach line and will be linked by a shuttle to the PATCO Howdy-Speedline station in nearby Lindenwold, added Orlando, who noted half of the bureau'southward clients live outside Camden City.

"For the clients who drive, this is going to exist much easier to reach," Hentisz said. "I think this volition open it upward to the entire county."

And one time the Wright building is vacant, it'due south expected to be demolished, said Orlando.

That volition brand mode for a park betwixt Metropolis Hall and Broadway, similar to the green space on the building's 5th Street side.

Jim Walsh is a complimentary-range reporter who'south been roaming around South Jersey for decades. His interests include law-breaking, the courts, economic development and being first with breaking news. Reach him at jwalsh@gannettnj.com or expect for him in traffic.

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Camden County Board Of Social Services Where To Park?,

Source: https://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/2019/11/20/board-social-services-expected-move-500-employees-empty-store/4244454002/

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