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| #e.22319 | Friday 2:00PM to 4:00PM
December 7,
2012 | CM | 2.00 |
Voorhees Town Center Walking TourAPA New Jersey ChapterVoorhees, NJ Free event Voorhees Town Center is a mixed use development consisting of retail, restaurant, office and residential uses; and is the result of the creative and deliberate transformation of a struggling suburban indoor mall.
The Echelon Mall opened in 1970 and had a gross leasable area of more than 1.1 million square feet, making it the second largest mall in southern New Jersey after the Cherry Hill Mall. The Echelon Mall thrived until the 1990s, but declined in popularity until the vacancy rate reached nearly 75% in 2005. The mall was located in the center of a residential and commercial area, but did not have major highway frontage. Recognizing the potential to reinvent the center to respond to changed market conditions, the owners of the site partnered with the Township to initiate a redevelopment and revitalization effort. A redevelopment plan was prepared for the site, to encourage and enable the transformation of the site, and it was decided that the Township’s new municipal facilities would be located at the site. The site plan and subdivision were approved in 2006, ground breaking took place in 2007, and the new municipal offices opened in 2011.
Officially renamed Voorhees Town Center, the former Echelon Mall site now includes a mix of retail, restaurant, office and residential uses. The area of the indoor mall has been “right sized”, reduced and rehabilitated to accommodate a mix of shops and services inside without having excessive space to fill, while a complementary mix of shops, restaurants and services along with 425 residential units (including affordable units to assist the Township in meeting its fair share obligation) have been developed adjacent to the mall. The site has been designed so that all of the elements come together as parts of a new town center. A tree-lined, main street “boulevard” connects each aspect of the project and features boutiques, services and a variety of dining options. The reshaping and modernization of the Echelon Mall site is an exceptional example of the potential to reinvent dying suburban malls using traditional design principles and focusing on creating a “sense of place.”
The tour will walk around the Voorhees Town Center site, beginning at the new town hall with a brief presentation of the background and history of the site and the redevelopment initiative. The tour will be led by representatives of the developers as well as the Mayor and Township administrator and will explore progress that has been made, the work that is currently underway, challenges that have been overcome, and where additional opportunities may be realized in the future.
Instructors: Dan Rubin Dan Rubin joined PREIT in 1997 and has worked in several different facets. As a Director of Acquisitions he worked on a team that was responsible for investing over $200 million Dollars into assets that met the Company’s strategic investment goals. While Vice President of Asset Management Dan helped acquire, manage and redevelop, a handful of assets which remain core properties in the Company’s portfolio. In his current position as Vice President of Redevelopment he deployed over $100 million Dollars of the Company’s billion Dollar redevelopment campaign.
Dan earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Lafayette College. He is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).
Barry Shikhvarg Barry Shikhvarg started at Dewey Commercial in 2007 after graduating from Drexel University with a bachelor’s degree in finance. During his time there, he interned as a mortgage loan officer for Nationwide Financial and then helped Commerce Bank’s expansion effort in south Florida by finding new real estate sites. He has since gone back to Drexel for continuing education courses in construction management. Over the past 5 years, Barry has worked closely with PREIT and Voorhees Township to repurpose the former Echelon Mall into a revitalized mixed use development.
Dewey Commercial is fully integrated with in-house development, construction, leasing, and property management and has completed projects in excess of $300 million since its beginning in 2001. Company projects include a broad range of product types including multi -family residential, office, retail and industrial. Dewey Commercial specializes in developing institutional quality multi-family and mixed use products, especially large scale redevelopment, transit oriented and brownfield development. It currently owns and manages nearly 700 residential units in the suburban Philadelphia market.
(9 Ratings)
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