Commissioners select Bancroft developer
Haddonfield’s Board of Commissioners on Monday evening [May 13, 2024] adopted a resolution designating Woodmont Properties (Woodmont) as the conditional redeveloper of an 8.2-acre parcel in downtown Haddonfield. Consisting of a portion of the former Bancroft Site along Kings Highway, the redevelopment area is located on the east side of Hopkins Lane, in the vicinity of Haddonfield Memorial High School and Pennypacker Park. The Borough issued a request for qualifications and proposals for the acquisition and redevelopment of the area in May 2023. After a competitive process that culminated in the Borough’s thorough evaluation of nine proposals from developers throughout the region, Woodmont was selected to lead the project.
“Woodmont Properties is a well-established, regional developer with an impressive track record of successful redevelopment throughout New Jersey, and we’re thrilled to have their partnership on this project,” said Haddonfield Mayor Colleen Bianco Bezich. “The Borough has been focused on finding the best path forward for the Bancroft Site, and we are excited to work with Woodmont to make this a truly community-centered and welcoming gateway to our Borough.”
“Haddonfield is a premier community in New Jersey, and Woodmont is honored to have been entrusted with the redevelopment of this important site in the Borough’s Historic District, steps from downtown,” said Stephen Santola, Woodmont’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel. “We look forward to partnering with the Borough and leveraging our expertise in redevelopment to transform the Bancroft Site and bring it to its full potential.”
Based in Fairfield, N.J., Woodmont has 60 years of experience developing, building, marketing and investing in residential and commercial properties. The team has completed numerous major residential and mixed-use redevelopment projects in municipalities throughout the region such as Morristown, Saddle River, Cranford, Red Bank and Metuchen.
A public presentation of the project will take place on June 17, 2024, at which time the community will have the opportunity to provide feedback.
For more information about Woodmont, please visit https://www.woodmontproperties.com/.
The following description of the Woodmont Properties proposal was published by njpen.com on August 11, 2023.
Woodmont Properties of Fairfield, NJ
Eric Witmondt, CEO
Established in 1963, Woodmont Properties is a regional real estate developer operating primarily in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Its vision for the Bancroft site is 108 market-rate rental apartments and 12 affordable units, none of which are age-restricted, in 3.5-story buildings with integrated and detached parking garages.
“We concluded that non-age-restricted inclusionary housing would best achieve the borough’s goals and objectives,” Woodmont wrote, by “maximiz[ing]housing affordability, diversity, and availability.
“Townhomes are unlikely to achieve the borough’s goal of increasing its housing diversity to provide existing residents with less expensive downsizing options, as any new townhomes constructed on this site will be priced at the top of the market,” the developer wrote. “Our apartments, while spacious, will be modestly sized in comparison to single-family homes in the area.”
Most of the units would be two-bedroom layouts, with some one-bedroom units. All apartments would offer single-level living, with integrated and detached garages, and “top-of-the-market” amenities.
The Woodmont proposal also occupies a smaller footprint than some of the other projects; its seven-acre purchase price excludes 1.2 acres that will be dedicated to public open space and padding the green buffer with the Cooper River. The developer also envisions constructing walking and cycling paths and electric vehicle charging stations onsite.
Its construction would include green building technologies, and design features chosen to approximate local historic district styles, with brick, painted fiber-cement, and glass. The Woodmont proposal didn’t account for any schoolchildren generated, but promised a fiscal impact study will follow.
Purchase price: $5.85 million for 7 acres, assuming a 10-percent PILOT. Woodmont estimates that the project would generate annual payments of $440,000 upon its completion, and that the project could be constructed within 24 months.
Comparable projects from the same developer: Woodmont Metro at Metuchen Station; Woodmont Station at Cranford; Woodmont Townsquare, Washington Township; Metropolitan Lofts at Morristown.
For Matt Skoufalos’s njpen.com article on this matter, go HERE.