A Voorhees office building, part of The Rouse Company’s early 1970s plan for an Echelon Town Center that included the now-defunct Echelon Mall, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places this year.
Cited as “an early example of precast concrete in modern architecture,” the eight-story Camden County building was known as Four Echelon Plaza and, for decades, served as United Engineers & Constructors’ headquarters, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Historic Preservation Office.
But, like many other office buildings in New Jersey and across the nation, the former Rouse asset fell on hard times after the COVID-19 pandemic.
By 2024, it was completely empty.
The 51-year-old building will now be reborn as a “modern, luxury” 178-unit apartment complex, according to a preliminary and final major site plan approved by the Voorhees Planning Board on October 14.
A two-story parking garage sits next to the building on the 4.8-acre property.
Developer RP 201 Laurel Property Owner LLC of Wayne, Pennsylvania, plans to devote half of the garage’s top floor to a swimming pool, sports court, and seating and lounge areas, according to plans submitted to the board.
RP 201 Laurel’s major owners include Ira M. Lubert, who owns nearly a 43% interest, and lists his address as care of Belgravia Management LP in Philadelphia.
The other larger owner, with a 10.42% interest, is Beverage Financial Partners LP of Pennsauken, New Jersey.
RP 201 Laurel bought the property for $4.3 million last year from 201 Laurel Road Voorhees LLC, a Teaneck, New Jersey developer.
This was not the first plan to repurpose the building from offices.
Pinnacle Luxury Residences LLC of New Hope, Pennsylvania, received board approval in 2024 to convert the property into senior apartments, a plan that never came to fruition.
Because of its history, the building is a historic tax credit project under the Federal Rehabilitation Tax Incentives Program, according to the DEP.
