Brandywine to head Camden redevelopment

Philadelphia's dominant high-rise office landlord has been tapped by Campbell Soup Co. to develop an office park and other possible projects on 13 acres south of Admiral Wilson Boulevard (NJ 38) in depressed Camden, N.J. Brandywine Property Trust will cooperate with the Camden Redevelopment Authority in planning the "Gateway District," Campbell said in a statement this morning.

Brandywine, which operates six of Philadelphia's 10 largest office buildings and has also been the dominant office developer in relatively high-rent University City and Radnor, where it's based, "has consistently demonstrated a clear focus on high-quality, well-designed urban development,” said Richard Landers, Campbell’s Vice President of Tax and Real Estate, in this statement. Landers said the Gateway project should "create jobs and spur economic growth.”

The poverty-stricken former industrial city has struggled to attract employers, even with extensive state aid for city government, Cooper Health System expansion, state colleges, public and charter schools, and Delaware River waterfront projects. Office vacancies in Camden County are double the empty-office rate in neighboring Burlington County, according to data compiled by the office of South Jersey commercial real estate broker Jason Wolf. It took $82 million in 10-year state tax incentives to lure the NBA 76ers to promise offices and a practice facility in Camden earlier this year. 

To attract tenants for Brandywine, companies that want to move to the Gateway will be offered millions more in tax in incentives through Gov. Chris Christie's state Grow New Jersey and Garden State Growth Zones programs.

The Gateway project has been in the works since 2007 under Campbell, the soup, vegetable, baked-goods and drinks maker, and the only major corporation based in Camden. Since that year, Campbell says it "has invested more than $132 million in expanding its headquarters," including improvements to its own campus plus acquisition and redevelopment prep on adjacent land."

Brandywine boss Gerard H. Sweeney called the project "consistent with Brandywine’s philosophy of developing multi-modal, office and mixed-use, town center developments of consequence.”

“We are delighted and fully support Campbell’s selection of Brandywine Realty Trust as the developer for Camden’s Gateway District,” said Mayor Dana L. Redd in a statement. "I expect a developer of Brandywine’s caliber to deliver a top notch project." With help from state financial support, she added, "we feel Camden is once again poised to become the economic engine of the region.”

Source: Philly.com