Monroe looks to 400-plus manufacturing jobs at proposed redevelopment site
MONROE TWP. — A bottling company and 400-some jobs is the payoff the township is hoping for from its push to wrap a “redevelopment area” label around approximately 161 acres off Black Horse Pike.
The Planning Board last week recommended Township Council reclassify the land, giving local government more legal and financial leeway to support projects there.
The identity of the bottling company is still confidential, Mayor Gregory Wolfe said after the meeting.
“So, that tenant has to commit to it, and from what I understand we’re on a short list,” he said.
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Hexa Builders, a Robbinsville company, owns the land through a limited liability corporation and would develop the site. An alternative use mentioned would be two, large warehouse/distribution buildings.
Wolfe said Monroe apparently is the only location in New Jersey being considered for the operation.
“And we’re hoping that we can lure them to the area,” Wolfe said earlier. “Because if they come to this area, it’s a 1.6-million-square-foot building that they would need, with substantial infrastructure that would have to be put in place.
“Specifically, the water and sewer would have to go all the way down, basically, to Coles Mill Road, wrap around Coles Mill Road, and tie into a tower off of Jackson Road,” Wolfe said. “Which is just going to create a big loop, which will be great for our community. Because if we get infrastructure all down there, then we’re hoping to attract more business down there.”
Wolfe said Hexa Builders submitted a water use request that the township Municipal Utilities Authority approved at a special meeting on March 1. The company wants access to 1.4 million gallons of water per day, he said.
At the March 7 Planning Board meting, board engineer Timothy Kernan broke down details from a study done on the three lots comprising the site. The land is on the south side of the 3000 block of Black Horse Pike, with its southern border generally following the waterway known as Hospitality Branch.
Kernan said the property is a distance from municipal utilties connections, among the reasons it has not been developed. A study also showed “significant wetlands.”
A redevelopment plan done for the site notes its good transportation access via Route 322 and that interchanges for the Atlantic City Expressway and Route 73 are within 10 miles.
The Planning Board decided against recommending the township give itself power to condemn land, since the property owner is working with Monroe to develop it.
Attorney Emily Givens, representing Hexa Builders, made the same point and called current relations “very collaborative.”
Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.
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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Jobs, infrastructure goals as Monroe looks at Black Horse Pike site
