Egg Harbor Township looks for help to bolster shopping centers | Local News

Coffee started being poured inside a new Starbucks at the site in 2018. Supercuts, Hand & Stone Facial Massage and Dickey’s Barbecue Pit opened last year. Texas Roadhouse is now hiring.

The township helped make Oak Tree Plaza a reality with tax abatements for its three buildings, but it hopes to be of even greater assistance to other, older plazas that are struggling to repurpose themselves.

Last month, the Township Committee voted to have the state prepare a redevelopment plan for what it’s calling the Cardiff Center area. The study will be finished in a year.

The area being studied encompasses more than 250 acres and includes the Harbor Square Shopping Center with Boscov’s, the Cardiff Power Shopping Center with Forman Mills, Genuardi’s Plaza with Bonefish Grill and Cardiff Plaza with Harbor Freights Tools.

The plan could loosen up a lot of standards, giving architects a bit more leeway as to what they can come up with, township Administrator Peter J. Miller said.

With so-called free-form zoning, architects, developers and builders have more say in what is economically feasible, which could result in projects happening and more jobs, said Vincent J. Polistina, the township Planning Board’s planner.

Each shopping center has experienced losses in recent years.

Cardiff Plaza saw East Bay Crab & Grille close in 2013, followed by the Caribbean Clam Bar & Lounge in the same location in 2017 after only being open for a year. Discount grocery store Save-A-Lot closed last month.

The Cardiff Power Center saw its Pathmark grocery store close in 2012.

Genuardi’s Plaza on Fire Road lost its namesake supermarket in 2012. Another supermarket, JR’s Fresh Market, opened in the same location, only to close in 2018.

Harbor Square, formerly the Shore Mall, has seen the biggest losses. Almost one-third of the mall was demolished in 2013. Burlington was formerly located in Harbor Square but moved to Mays Landing last year. TGI Fridays restaurant closed, but Atlantic City Barstool Brothers Furniture & Design took its place last year.

If Cardiff Center is ultimately approved as an area in need of redevelopment, it could empower the Township Committee to offer new developers greater tax incentives than were available for Oak Tree Plaza.

The purpose of the redevelopment plan is to provide vision, revised rezoning and implement a strategy to transform the area into a mixed-use district, township officials said.

If the plan is eventually adopted, it is hoped prospective developers would find it attractive and rewarding, Miller said.

“We talked about things such as uses on those properties where there would be a residential component to it,” Miller said. “The person at Cardiff Center and Harbor Square, they have asked us would we entertain a residential component in a commercial zone, and we said yes, but what type are you talking about? Is it senior? Is it health care residents? Is it townhouses?”

A couple of property owners were interested in working with the township.

George Ackerman, managing partner of New York-based Benbrooke Realty Investment Co., which has owned Cardiff Plaza since 1994, said his center is holding its own, but his company looks forward to having a seat at the table and helping develop plans that will benefit all stakeholders.

“The neighborhood is surely struggling, and the brick-and-mortar shopping center business in general has changed dramatically in recent years, and certainly not for the better. Clearly, we need to adapt to those changes. Being proactive is always a good idea. What’s truly needed going forward is flexibility in terms of property uses and designs,” Ackerman said.

Certain brick-and-mortar stores are still needed, but they have to be the right kind, in the right location, and surrounded by the right mix of uses that allow the plaza to create jobs and provide retail amenities to a growing community that is evolving in its taste in retail and residential options, Ackerman said.

Across the Black Horse Pike in the Cardiff Power Center, Atilis Gym is the only open business on its side of the shopping center and faces Forman Mills, which is the only open business on its side also.

Atilis opened March 1, 2017, after Oceanside Wellness & Sport closed in April 2016. At more than 21,000 square feet, the township location is larger than its other gyms in Ocean City, Wildwood, Sea Isle City and Bellmawr, Camden County.

Owner Chris Lambert had not heard of any plans for redevelopment, but he has found that the Cardiff Center location has been perfect for his business.

“I don’t need other big, big stores,” said Lambert. “We’re doing good.”

The Harbor Square shopping plaza has been owned by Centurion Management Corp., a New York City-based realty holding company, since 2014.

Gerard J. Valerius, Centurion’s president, said the company’s corporate procedure is not to comment on anything until they know the entire scope of it, but he is sure working with the township would benefit the area.

If the Township Committee adopts the redevelopment plan for the Cardiff Center area, it would be the fourth such plan in the township.

Two other areas deemed in need of redevelopment in the township are along the Margate Causeway and in the Farmington neighborhood. A redevelopment plan also was compiled for the revitalization of West Atlantic City in 2009.

Even though all four major sections of the Cardiff Center area are zoned commercial, there is not one cookie-cutter solution for all the locations, Miller said.

“They have to reconcile in their plan what the existing zoning says, and we may be layering in on top of that existing plan additional uses. Some may be conditional uses — if you have X number of acres, you can XY&Z,” Miller said. “If I could prejudge all these things, I wouldn’t need to do the plan.”