The Burlington Store on Route 42 in Turnersville (Washington Township, Gloucester County NJ) will be relocating to a much smaller location a few miles up the road, at the former Office Max (attached to Target).
Meanwhile the Deptford Burlington Store has reduced their interior space in half. (Update: readers are telling us the current Turnersville store also walled off a portion)
These moves are part of a new corporate strategy at Burlington.
Last year Burlington Stores announced they will focus on doubling the number of locations to 2,000, while moving to a smaller format store to reduce operating costs.
Last year Burlington stated new store locations would be targeted at currently available spaces within good quality shopping centers… simply, moving into locations of other closed stores.
(C) Google Maps following their fair use guidelines
Burlington Turnersville Relocating
42Freeway knew someone was moving into the long closed Office Max store on Route 42, which is attached to the Target.. but we couldn’t figure out who.
The Office Max building photos I show here were taken back in November 2021 knowing we’d eventually learn who was coming in!
We found the answer at a somewhat new Facebook page “Township Business Buzz” where in a recent post they simply stated “as well as the former Office Max becoming Burlington”
Business Buzz is an official Washington Township Facebook Page, operated by their Advisory Board of Economic Development.
We reached out to a member of the Advisory Board who further confirmed the Burlington news.
We then found additional confirmation from the Burlington Store’s current shopping center Washington Plaza, which is already marketing the original Burlington Store location as available for rent.
So no… there is no one currently signed on to take over the current Burlington Store Turnersville property.
(A bit of positive news for the Washington Plaza shopping center, the Township Business Buzz page also states a new lease has been signed for the former Joyce Leslie property… but they can not announce who just yet!)
The new Burlington Store location at the Office Max building is 2.5 miles South of the current location, on the same Route 42.
Along with the Target, located in the front of the shopping center is the Xfinity store and Mattress Warehouse. A Lowe’s Home Improvement is next door and the large Walmart shopping center is 2 mins South.
With a Burlington store also in Deptford, this new location will space them a little further away and closer to the Cross Keys Road commercial district, with easier access from Gloucester Township and WIlliamstown.
The new Burlington location will have some additional access points as it also sits along Watson Drive which easily leads to Fries Mill and Hurffville Cross Keys Roads.
But it’s clear this move isn’t really about location… the goal for Burlington is to reduce the size of the store.
And this one will be a big reduction.
A marketing and leasing page for the old/current location of Burlington Store shows the property at 90,000 square feet. Now I don’t know if Burlington used a lesser amount of that interior, but the new location at Office Max is almost 1/4 the size at 23,500 sq ft!
As mentioned the Washington Plaza page is very open to the fact that Burlington is leaving, and they are actively looking for a new tenant, and would consider other uses of the building.
Former Burlington building will be considered for alternative uses such as warehouse, self-storage, healthcare or other redevelopment of building
Washington Plaza Marketing Site of NRDC.com
A piece of trivia that I keep seeing popping up on Social Media… the Turnersville Burlington Store was originally developed as a Caldor. The curved front façade entrance is basically untouched from when Caldor was there.
Many confuse the stores of this shopping center with the one next to it (where Kohl’s is). To clarify, the Washington Plaza shopping center where Burlington is currently located was new construction for Caldor, and announced in 1989. Another article we located states Caldor opened later that same year.
The Caldor company closed soon after in the mid-90s, and the Burlington Coat Factory moved in, in 1999.
Deptford Store Interior Reduced
Burlington seems so intent on reducing the size of their stores and inventory, they’ve done an interesting thing within the interior of the Deptford location (located on Almonesson Road in the “Olive Garden/Red Lobster” shopping center)
We stopped in to the Burlington Store in Deptford earlier this month and saw that Burlington had put up temporary 7 foot tall partition walls across the middle of the store, so that the retail sales are focused in the front half of the larger building.
Because the bathrooms and store operations are to the back, they used the same portable barrier walls to make 2 hallways to the back of the store.
Visiting the Deptford store now really gives a true indication in how much they are reducing the size and inventory. “Wow, I remember multiple rows of Men’s jackets and clothing”.
Admittedly I stopped in after the holiday season, but the reduction in floor space and inventory is very clear.
The Burlington Store in Deptford opened back in 2015 and was the initial catalyst which triggered a complete rebirth of the Court at Deptford Shopping center. A shopping center which went on to become one of our area’s biggest retail success stories.
We have no other information on the status of the Deptford store location, or any of the larger Burlington stores. They are probably just happy operating in half the space.
Links and Location
Burlington Store Turnersville