In its quest for affordable housing properties, Mount Laurel in Burlington County wants to buy two hotels it says are distressed and underutilized, making them available for redevelopment.
The properties are among nine hotels the Township identified as redevelopment targets in its fourth round of affordable housing commitments filed with the court earlier this year. The town’s plan estimates the development of the properties could yield 308 affordable housing units.
Mount Laurel, like many municipalities across New Jersey, has scrambled to find property that could be redeveloped into residential units with an affordable housing component. Some endorse construction in mall or shopping center parking lots, while others are looking closely at office buildings with high vacancy rates.
In August, the Planning Board supported designating the two hotels as condemnation redevelopment areas.
“If the Planning Board accepts the studies’ findings, then the Township will begin to negotiate with the property owners to acquire the lands,” Township Solicitor George M. Morris of the Parker McCay law firm said in an email before the vote. “If acquired, a redeveloper will be selected to develop housing at these locations.”
Morris said the two studies are the first in a series expected over the next few years. “The law requires that the Township identify whether the redevelopment study will grant the Township all powers to negotiate, including the power of eminent domain,” he said.
Planner Michael Mistretta, who authored the studies of the two hotel properties for Township consultant Harbor Consultants of Cranford, New Jersey, told Planning Board members at the meeting that the Township realized in earlier affordable housing research that it needed to widen its search of properties that could be developed for affordable housing.
“We have less vacant land to put these units so the town has to figure out a way, as the town changes and no longer becomes a vacant land town, we started to look at developed properties and you start using and focusing redevelopment efforts to address our affordable housing obligations,” he explained.
The first two hotels are the Rodeway Inn on Route 73 and the Red Roof Inn on Fellowship Road. Each would be redeveloped into 100% affordable housing – Rodeway with 86 units and Red Roof with 90, according to Mount Laurel’s affordable housing plan.
If all nine hotels eventually are redeveloped, they would yield a total of 826 residential units, of which 308 would be affordable, the plan notes.
The 50-year-old Rodeway Inn, cited by public agencies for dozens of code violations, now is listed for sale at $6.2 million, according to the July redevelopment study by Harbor Consultants.
A similar study of the Red Roof Inn by Harbor Consultants also documents code violations. Each report includes photos of what the consultant identifies as disrepair and other issues. The Red Roof Inn opened in the early 1980s.
A Fire Department directive issued last year forbids any fire department personnel from entering the Red Roof Inn without having a police officer on the scene, according to the Red Roof study.
For the Rodeway Inn, “the sheer quantity of incidents and violations reported by the Township Fire Department and Township Police Department illustrate the unsafe state of the building in the Redevelopment Study Area which contribute to unwholesome living and working conditions,” the consultant in that property’s study.
Vijay Shroff, a 25-year Mount Laurel resident and an owner of the Red Roof Inn, objected to the redevelopment designation in testimony at the Planning Board meeting.
He disputed the report suggesting the hotel was in need of repair, listing ways the owners maintain the property.
Shroff said the value of the “land is unbelievable” on the Red Roof property.
“This is not a housing area,” he told the board, inviting members for a tour of the facility.
However, if the Red Roof is redeveloped into affordable housing apartments, Shroff said his firm should have the opportunity to be the redeveloper.
