Expansion planned of downtown Camden 'health sciences' campus

Construction on a proposed "health sciences" campus in downtown Camden is still nine months away, but an expansion already is being planned.

The joint "Rowan University/Rutgers-Camden Board of Governors" has torn down the block diagonally across from the Walter Rand Transportation Center - from South Fifth Street to Broadway and Martin Luther King Boulevard to Stevens Street - to put up a main health sciences building.

Now it's begun buying the strip of land on the other side of Broadway.

At a meeting Tuesday, the board approved buying a lot for $580,000 from Ava Waisbord and for $340,000 from Wu Property Investment LLC. The board's appraised value for the strip of lots on the east side of Broadway, from MLK to Stevens, is $4 million to $5 million, said Kris Kolluri, the board's CEO.

That strip would provide further space for the public colleges, along with private tenants, Kolluri said. The board's goal is to attract private companies to an "eds and meds corridor" that includes Rutgers-Camden, Cooper University Hospital, and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University.

The joint board is financing those purchases through its $5 million annual budget, which is equally funded by Rowan and Rutgers-Camden.

Two owners control the remaining properties down Broadway. The board has sent them offer letters, Kolluri said.

Kolluri said the board would work with existing tenants to relocate within the city.

He said the expected benefits of developing the health sciences campus and "eds and meds corridor" would outweigh the city's loss of property taxes, which the board does not pay.

"We will work with the city . . . to make sure that we are continuing to contribute to the neighborhood and the city," Kolluri said.

Fred Graziano, an executive at TD Bank and member of the board who heads its finances committee, said that buying more land now makes sense, given the likelihood that property will be scarcer and more expensive in the future.

"There's only going to be so much property available," he said.

Construction on the main building is set to begin in July, with the state funding $70 million for the campus.

The board currently plans an L-shaped, 96,000-square-foot building at the southwest corner of Broadway and MLK, with surface parking on the rest of the block. Inside, Rutgers-Camden, Rowan, and Camden County College will have a mix of office space, classrooms, and lab/research areas.

Source: Philly.com