Demolition of former Evesham Kmart begins
With a rumble of its engine, a big yellow backhoe Tuesday crashed its hydraulic arm through a wall of Evesham Township's long-vacant Kmart store, a first step in the demolition - and rehabilitation - of a shopping center the township has long called an eyesore.
With a rumble of its engine, a big yellow backhoe Tuesday crashed its hydraulic arm through a wall of Evesham Township's long-vacant Kmart store, a first step in the demolition - and rehabilitation - of a shopping center the township has long called an eyesore.
"It's been a continual process to get where we are today," Mayor Randy Brown told residents and officials gathered at the Tri-Towne Plaza minutes before the backhoe sprang to life in Burlington County's largest municipality.
"We've worked longer on this than any other project in Evesham," Brown said.
Plans call for a five-building, 338-unit apartment complex, 12,600 square feet of retail space, a 2,100-square-foot coffee shop, and the rehabilitation of 84,000 square feet of existing commercial space.
The retail space will be called the Shoppes at Renaissance Square, and the apartment complex the Residence at Renaissance Square.
Its surviving commercial space, now vacated, previously housed a Japanese steak restaurant, a nail salon, a tax-preparation service, and other businesses. A Burger King store on a separate pad site will be demolished.
Nancy Jamanow, the township's community development director, said she knew of no plans to include a supermarket in the mix. A SuperFresh there closed in 2012.
"We've been working a long time to pull this together," said Richard Birdoff, a principal of RD Management of New York, which owns the property.
Relations between RD and the township were not always cordial.
After years of urging the company to do something with its sprawling parking lot and 190,000-square-foot shell of a department store, the township in 2013 declared the property blighted as part of its new redevelopment plan.
RD filed suit in Superior Court to have the site removed from the plan, and accused Evesham of "unveiled arrogance."
But township officials said Tuesday that Tri-Towne's inclusion in the redevelopment plan - which might have led to its acquisition by eminent domain - brought both sides into an amicable discussion of its possibilities, and RD dropped its suit.
The township offered a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) arrangement as an incentive for RD to develop the property.
Birdoff said his firm had long looked for a commercial tenant to take over the former Kmart site, but at the township's encouragement, turned instead to "mixed use," a combination of residential and retail occupancy.
The firm expects to invest between $25 million and $30 million in remaking the property, which will include a narrow wooded park fronting Route 70. Birdoff said that site work would begin in the spring and that he hoped the project would open its doors next year.
Brown has projected that the finished site could be worth $60 million in tax ratables, with potential to help reduce local property taxes.
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