Pennsauken Mart site risks losing $16.5 million grant

Kerry Yobb drives by the old Pennsauken Mart site every day and remembers the good times he shared with his fellow merchants.

"I had a decent living then," said Yobb, who owned the Gold Emporium and Pretzel King shops. "I wasn't rich, but I didn't have to worry about next week. Now I don't know when the next paycheck is coming."

Six years after the Mart property was purchased by Camden County through eminent domain and three years since the shabby shopping center was razed, Yobb and 14 other Mart transplants are struggling at the Grand Marketplace shopping center in Willingboro.

The sprawling Mart site, where a high-end apartment development is planned, is an empty lot marred by demolition debris, weeds, and potholes.

It is not generating the tax revenue that planners anticipated, and if a substantial number of apartments aren't constructed by June 2012, the county stands to lose a $16.5 million grant provided by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) for the project.

The delayed start on the proposed Renaissance Walk apartments has prompted the county and the Camden County Improvement Authority to enter into talks about extending the CRDA deadline.

"This was a loser for everybody," said Yobb, 58, former president of the Pennsauken Mart Merchants Association and owner of Kerry's Coney Island Hot Dogs at the Grand Marketplace. "Nothing is going to happen there until the economy turns around.

"The only thing that will survive at that location is an outlet center with mom-and-pop shops, something like what we had."

Officials of the Improvement Authority and county Board of Freeholders declined to be interviewed about the proposed development.

They "continue to work with Renaissance Partners L.L.C. on the Renaissance Walk project in Pennsauken," they said in a joint statement. Renaissance Partners was organized by Sean Scarborough of Scarborough Properties.

"The worst economic times in decades, combined with the decline in the real estate market and environmental concerns, have delayed construction," according to the statement.

The county would have to repay the $16.5 million under terms of its contract, CRDA spokesman Dan Douglas said. "They would have to have something substantially up" by mid-2012, he said.

But the authority realizes "these things aren't easy," Douglas said. "When the contract point hits, there's some discretion. . . . There are all kinds of variables, and we try to provide as much leeway as possible."

The apartment project, involving several hundred units, is the latest proposal for the property. The first called for an ice arena and convention center to house a professional hockey team that George E. Norcross planned to buy.

After Norcross, chairman of Cooper Health System, dropped that idea, the county turned to Beazer Homes for a luxury housing development. When that plan fell apart, officials looked to Renaissance Partners to build the apartments.

"This will be a major improvement over the dilapidated eyesore that previously occupied that site that's also the northeastern gateway to Camden County," Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said when the project was announced.

But environmental cleanup of the location - at the intersection of Routes 73, 90, and 130 - has been slow.

"Water and vapor contamination at the site were caused by residue left by a dry-cleaning establishment and a gas station," said the statement from the Improvement Authority and the freeholders. "Since late 2007, the county has been remediating the ground and water."

As a result, "it could take longer than the summer of 2012 to complete the project," the statement said, adding that officials were "in discussions with CRDA regarding the timetable and implementation of the project."

The apartments can't come soon enough for Pennsauken Mayor Rick Taylor. "We felt it would be an improvement - anything beyond the Mart," he said.

"It looks atrocious there now. It's a big black eye for our town - an empty, nasty-looking lot."

Despite the delay, "the town has not lost a dime of revenue," Taylor said. The county has reimbursed Pennsauken for property taxes it would have received, he said.

Many former Pennsauken Mart merchants wish they could turn back the clock and have their deteriorating shopping center renovated instead of demolished.

"I was there from 1987 to 2004 and didn't want to go anywhere else," said Alan Rosenberg, who owned the Glasses Galore shop, which did $800,000 a year in business.

"We had people standing in line before we opened. We were one of the busiest stores there," said Rosenberg, 46, of Cherry Hill, now an optician at the Grand Marketplace. "People came there from Camden and Philadelphia." The Mart's closing, he said, "was a travesty for me, for everyone."

Yobb couldn't agree more. "Why would you knock down a 50-year operation that was paying taxes?" he asked. "It's criminal."

Today, Yobb sells hot dogs at the Grand Marketplace and has branched out into more exotic meats: alligator, kangaroo, ostrich, buffalo, iguana, wild boar, and bear.

He sells gold on the side and drives a school bus to help make ends meet. But he can't help thinking back to his Mart days when "business was booming, even in a bad economy."

Looking at the site today, "all I see is rubble at the gateway to Camden County," Yobb said. "It's just a dump."