It seems a brighter future could be on it’s way for the never fully operational Washington Township Digital Monument Sign. Other projects such as the unfinished Mount Laurel EMS Facility and Sign also seem to have a bright light at the end of a now shorter tunnel.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Joe DiStefano, a recent property auction for the beleaguered Black Horse Pike monument and 8 other sign properties turned ownership over to the lender W.P. Carey, who plans on working with developers to complete the projects and get them fully operational.

W.P. Carey is the lender who provided the funding to monument sign developer Catalyst, which Catalyst was to use to fund digital monument sign projects in several New Jersey communities.
As of the start of legal action last year, W.P. Carey was owed over $25 million for the nine New Jersey projects, and seemingly developers and contractors were not being paid.
And when contractors aren’t getting paid, development efforts halt.

According to the Inquirer, the goal for W.P. Carey is to complete sign projects which have already been started but not fully completed/operational including Washington Township and Mount Laurel (sign and EMS facility) and others… as well as take over maintenance for developed signs which have not been maintained, including those in Pennsauken.
It’s possible that other planned but not started projects such as the second sign location in Washington Township at Tuckahoe Road and the Black Horse Pike, could also be developed.

We are ready to collaborate fully with the new owners of the sign and ensure it is fully functional. Our focus is on the future, not on how we arrived here. I personally attended the sale to meet the new owners and express our commitment to working together 100 percent moving forward
Peter Del Borrello, Washington Township Council President
New owner W.P. Carey seems to have the financial backing to complete the monument sign projects with yearly revenue of $1.5 billion dollars, 168 million square feet of building space in their portfolio and a NYSE Market Cap of almost $13 Billion.
Not to mention that W.P. Carey has a vested-interest in the completion and final full operation of the projects, as they are the lender for the development and would have a strong desire to turn that investment into completed, functioning and more valuable businesses.

My last coverage of Catalyst was in May of 2023 when the former retail sign was being removed from in front of the mostly completed Washington Twp sign at Whitman Drive.
Around that time the digital panels were replaced and the sign was functioning… showing different full-color scenes on the large screen and at times, the Catalyst logo. The final key steps remaining at the time were a water feature and to develop a new relocated retail shopping center sign.
But the Whitman Drive area project did not see the completion of those aspects. This meant there has been no selling and displaying ads, nor the Washington Township community notices that were part of the approval process.

For reporters (including myself) this is a situation that many times the information we have is only as good as what the company tells us, or even what they don’t tell us.
The day after my May 17, 2023 article I received a response from the Catalyst Chief Operating Officer to my questions… his answers painted a then positive picture for the Washington Township sign being completed timely, with no hint of financial challenges for the company.
Yet three weeks later in June 2023 their lender filed a foreclosure complaint with the New Jersey Court System for default on $25+ Million in loans.
I don’t have exact timing, but we are working on finishing the water feature as well as commissioning the displays so they can start running communications. The Oreck sign is being moved to the opposite side of the driveway as you note. The work on the Horizontal sign will begin once Vertical is finished and running.
May 18, 2023 response from Catalyst Chief Operating Officer on the two Washington Township sign projects. Three weeks later lender W.P. Carey filed a foreclosure complaint for the property.

For the unfinished Mount Laurel project, that unique agreement was centered around Catalyst building the Township a new EMS facility on prime Route 73 property. The building would have two digital signs placed on the front, showing ads to the significant traffic on the highway.
That project had also halted, and my last update on the Mount Laurel sign goes back to November 2022 when Mount Laurel Township shared a positive story on the restart of development. Of course that information was really just relayed from Catalyst. Development was not completed on that project.

I’ve known about the financial issues since last year, soon after the initial complaint was filed in New Jersey Superior Court back in June of 2023.
That being said, Joe DiStefano of the Philadelphia Inquirer has been on top of the story more recently, as the court proceedings moved towards an auction of the properties.
An article at TapIntoFlemington earlier this month also calls out the (then) upcoming auction, as Flemington NJ also has a “mostly complete” living wall monument digital ad sign, that was never made fully operational. Very similar story to Washington Township’s sign.

Ahead of the auction, a listing at commercial Real Estate site Loopnet published a master listing for the auction including all 9 properties, as well individual listings for each.
Included are properties in: Washington Township (2), Mount Laurel (3), Pennsauken (2), and Flemington NJ (2).
I know people will ask “when will the signs be completed” but it’s clearly very early in the process for W.P. Carey. Absolutely they could be game planning their steps but really nothing could start until they took ownership, which just took place this month.