Bella Vista Village is a planned mixed-use residential and retail project for the corner of Delsea Drive and County House Road in Washington Township, and it was approved at last week’s Washington Township Planning Board meeting.
The core concept of the project is to create a small town main street feel, with retail stores on the first floor and condos above the stores.
42Freeway first wrote about this project almost three years ago, but the original version of the plan did not make it through planning approval at the time.
What was presented last week to the Washington Township planning board carried that same mixed-use theme, but with a smaller development plan which reduced the number of buildings from the original plan, removed the dedicated restaurant building, and increased the number of parking spaces.
The new construction will be on 8 acres of the 17 acre property… leaving close to 50% wooded. The developer is planning on significant park like setting improvements including benches and decorative lighting.
In other Washington Twp development news, two big projects that were scheduled for last night’s Zoning Board hearing were postponed by request of the developers.
- Sprouts Grocery – Egg Harbor Road, was postponed until October 16, 2023
- Fieldstone at Ganttown – (Townhomes), was postponed until December 11, 2023
Keep reading for more on Bella Vista Village
Bella Vista Village – Descriptive
As mentioned Bella Vista Village is a mixed-use project for Delsea Drive in Washington Township.
The developer documents describe it as a beautiful mixed-use development on 17 acres of land of which about 8 acres will be developed.
The two road frontage sides will have 6 foot wide concrete sidewalk with paver edges, benches, decorative lighting, extensive landscaping of trees and shrubs.
Within the development it will be created with a park-like setting including plenty of sidewalks, trees, shrubs, benches, decorative lighting, and a gazebo.
While there are likely no retail tenant signed at this time, they are targeting mostly small neighborhood retail such as a coffee shop, bakery, hair salon, dry cleaner etc. Hopefully small restaurants will show interest also.
Bella Vista Village – Buildings
Bella Vista Village will consists of two larger mixed-use buildings positioned at the corner of Delsea and County House Roads, with a smaller third building with additional housing.
Across the full project there will be 60 residential units, 12 of which will be affordable housing (likely required by law).
The two main buildings are planned as clones of each other at 199 feet wide and 70 feet deep.
The first floor retail segments are broken out as 10,000 sf for retail/office, with a separate section of 2,000 square feet reserved for uses related to the tenants…. Which in one building will be the leasing office, and the other building will be a resident’s gym.
The second and third floors of the two large buildings will offer 26 condos each consisting of 10 one-bedroom, 14 two-bedroom, and 2 three-bedroom.
The third smaller building will have 8 units total; 6 being two-bedrooms, and 2 as one-bedroom.
The project offers more parking than the original plan (197 spots), and the number of parking spots meet the requirements of zoning.
With the three buildings focused at the corner and along County House Road, there is one area on the Delsea Drive side which is designated for future development.
I had a chance to speak briefly to the property owner on the way out of the meeting, who says there is no timeline for the start of development.
There are still additional approvals that are needed including some refinements to the Washington Township approval.
He’s hoping to break ground sometime next year but no timeline is set yet.
And with that uncertainty over the construction schedule, I do not believe there are any retail tenants signed on for the project
Links and Locations
Bella Vista Village – Approved, Not Developed
Delsea Drive and County House Road
Washington Township, NJ