As New Jersey communities struggle to find space for affordable housing projects, Voorhees in Camden County has found part of its solution in the overflow parking area of the town’s multiplex movie theater.
The Township Planning Board has given preliminary and final major site plan approval to a developer that will carve out 2.36 acres of the parking lot of the AMC Voorhees 16 to build a 60-unit 100% affordable apartment complex in two buildings that will be accessed from Laurel Oak Road.
Board members voted 5-0 in favor of the plan and memorialized it in a resolution in late June.
“The surrounding uses are complementary to residential use, providing an abundance of shopping (including grocery shopping), entertainment, and restaurant options well within walking distance,” according to Voorhees’ plan for the fourth round of affordable housing obligations under the Mount Laurel court decisions.
Voorhees Family Apartments LLC is the developer. The two owners with at least a 10% interest listed on the application are Joseph A. Del Duca, a Haddonfield land-use lawyer who is general counsel of the Walters Group, and Edward M. Walters Jr., owner of the Walters Group.
The Barnegat-based Walters Group owns and manages about 2,000 affordable housing units in New Jersey and has another 1,000 in the development pipeline, the firm reports.
Voorhees Family Apartments will buy the property from Posel Voorhees LLC of Philadelphia.
