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Nine Story Office Tower at Cherry Hill Mall Coming Down – What’s Next?

Nine Story Office Tower at Cherry Hill Mall Coming Down – What’s Next?

The nine story tall One Cherry Hill office tower which is located adjacent to the popular Cherry Hill Mall, is in the process of being demolished.

Construction fencing surrounds the building today and demolition workers are inside the building demolishing the interior aspects.  The more impactful full building demolition is set to start after the important holiday shopping season.

The building is located in the back of the mall… not connected to the mall, but very close. The office tower is positioned in the “L” that is formed by the two wings of the mall.

At the very top of the office tower it still features the signature large lettering for “One Cherry Hill” and it’s logo depiction of two cherries… but soon that will all be gone.

The office towner opened in 1968 with over 25 office tenants and approximately 10 other retailers in the lobby including a bakery, dry cleaners, travel agency and more.

For over 50 years the building was home to hundreds of South Jersey workers who had the advantage of being just 40 feet from the mall entrance, who after work or for lunch had quick access to all of the mall’s stores and restaurants.

The One Cherry Hill office building thrived for decades with dozens of tenants who provided gainful employment to hundreds of South Jersey residents.

In recent years though the building has seemed somewhat quiet.

One Cherry Hill Office Tower – Cherry Hill Mall

At the beginning of September I was in the rear parking lot of the mall behind the office tower, covering the temporary installation of FUNBOX inflatable bounce park… and the one Cherry Hill office tower caught my attention.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but for about 14 years I worked for Yorkship Business Supply, who in the 1980s and 90s was South Jersey’s largest office products distributor with over 200 employees!

And while working there I got to know likely every single office building in Camden and Gloucester counties. So absolutely as I was standing in the mall parking lot in early September, that One Cherry Hill office tower caught my eye “are there still people working there?

My research led me to review Cherry Hill permits, and I found that last year a permit was issued to “decommission all three elevators” in the building.

I’m not an engineer but it would seem kind of tough to operate a nine-story office building if you don’t have elevators, so that raised some flags for me.  But I wanted to do more research.

Then I noticed that last month additional permits were filed, with the latest permit very clearly saying “Interior Demolition – Preparing for building demolition”

Interior demolition has started at the One Cherry Hill Office Building – Cherry Hill

That in itself is enough proof that One Cherry Hill office tower is coming down, but in my years of writing 42 freeway I’ve made many contacts in the construction industry… and several others confirmed the plans.

I did stop in at the Cherry Hill Mall Management Offices today, and later in the afternoon received a call from their media contact who said that the mall and its owner (PREIT) had no comment at this time.

Regarding future plans for the soon to be cleared space?   Just my opinion but I don’t think owner PREIT would spend the money right now to tear the building down, unless they had something lined up to go in its place.

That being said industry contacts have shared with me one likely possible candidate, but I need to wait for additional confirmation.

One Cherry Hill – Reduced Office Demand Nationally

The Cherry Hill Mall opened in 1961 as the first enclosed shopping center east of the Mississippi.

The mall proved to be very popular and almost immediately had several additions.

Opening with 74 shops and a Strawbridge and Clothier’s department store, a year later they added eighteen more stores and the Bamberger’s department store.

Would you believe in 1964 a smaller professional wing with offices was opened as well as a 3,200sf ice skating rink?!

While I don’t remember the rink, does anyone else remember the little indoor children’s party area that had small kids rides?!

The Cherry Hill Mall (foreground) with the One Cherry Hill Tower in the rear

This success of the early malls caught on in America and through the 1960s and 70s, enclosed shopping malls popped up all over country and were seen as the new “Town Center” for America’s communities.

So with that Town Center, many projects were developed that also included residential and commercial office space.

A 1966 article in the Courier-Post describes the plans for the one Cherry Hill office tower which would include 100,000 square feet of rentable space.

Another local example of the multi-use development around mall centers was over in Voorhees where the Echelon Mall was developed by the same developer, Rouse. The series of related projects included the mall, a large eight-story office building, the County Library with community meeting spaces, and adjacent residential developments.

And then the Internet arrived.

A similar office building in Voorhees developed adjacent to the Echelon Mall is slated to become Senior Apartments.

Absolutely the Cherry Hill Mall is thriving and is likely one of the top performing malls in the country but we all realize that as a whole, the brick-and-mortar retail sector in America is significantly reduced from where we were say… 30 years ago.

I can absolutely connect the time frame within the lifespan of my daughter because I remember telling coworkers in the mid-90s that I was buying her Christmas toys online from a brand new website called Amazon (who had partnered with Toys-R-Us).  It was something that was just completely unheard of, and people thought I was risking my entire financial security by putting my credit card info into a website!

And look where we are today with internet shopping!

Now we are in the second wave of internet impacts, as I don’t think anyone realized how much the Internet and remote working capabilities would impact the commercial office sector.

With a big boost from the pandemic’s need to “work from home”, many more companies have permanently shifted to a remote work environment… which is reducing the need for expensive office space.

Moody’s Analytics recently announced that for the very first time the office vacancy rates in the top major metro areas was greater than 20%! Compare that to the financial boom year of 2007 when the vacancy rate was around 13%… And then with 2000 when it was under 10%!

These changes have led to a significant amount of unused commercial office space in America, with considerable projects taking place to either repurpose the buildings for new uses or even demolish them.

The large former headquarters for PHH Mortgage in Mt Laurel was approved to be demolished… for warehouses.

And that eight story office building in Voorhees next to the Echelon Mall (Voorhees Town Center)?  It is going through the approval process to become senior housing.

Links and Location

One Cherry Hill – Office Tower
Cherry Hill Mall
2000 Rt 38
Cherry Hill NJ

Preit Website