Plans for a 234,000 square foot warehouse proposed for Williamstown-Erial Road in Gloucester Township, are scheduled to be heard at the January 24th Planning Board meeting.
UPDATE: The Jan 24th presentation of this project was cancelled. They notice says the project will be reviewed by Council? Getting more information.
The developer is requesting a full final site plan approval to construct the warehouse at the January meeting.
This is according to a Public Meeting Notice which was published today. 42Freeway first covered early details of this project in June of 2022.
The clearest way to explain the location of the property is… if you know of the Target store on Berlin-Cross Keys Rd, well directly behind it (on Williamstown-Erial Rd) is a large 16 acre lot which most recently was used as a farm. That undeveloped property fronting the roadway is where the warehouse is proposed.
NOTE: 42Freeway.com takes no position on this proposed project and is simply informing the public on the upcoming public Planning Board Meeting, while adding some additional project details. Any member of the public can choose on their own to attend the meeting and voice their own questions and thoughts related to the project.
Keep reading for more details
Some may note that a new housing development is under construction in that area. The Independence Square townhome development is located next to this empty lot where the warehouse is proposed, further back off of Williamstown-Erial Road.
The typical commercial aspects of this area along Berlin-Cross Keys Road are retail and restaurants. This would be the first large warehouse in the immediate area.
It would appear that a main route for trucks accessing this warehouse would be via the Atlantic City Expressway, using the exit at Berlin Cross Keys Rd. Trucks would travel about 1.25 miles along the busy local roadway to reach the warehouse property.
At this time we are not aware of any tenant(s) signed for the new building.
Documents obtained by 42Freeway earlier in 2022 use the word “speculative”, which would mean they had started the development process without a tenant signed on.
While the location is not part of an existing larger “industrial park” warehouse section in town, it could possibly be targeted as a “last mile” facility which acts as a homebase hub for smaller trucks making local deliveries to area homes and businesses.
Modani Properties – Williamstown-Erial Rd Warehouse
The developer of the warehouse is Modani Properties of North Jersey.
Locally the property and project is developed by an LLC called “1000 Williamstown NJ”, which is affiliated with Modani. It’s very typical for the larger parent company to create a focused LLC for a project like this, which the parent company still controls.
At the corporate website for Modani they list the Sicklerville warehouse as coming soon.
42Freeway was able to obtain architectural documents on the project which were created in the Spring of 2022. I am sharing images here from those documents, but it is possible some aspects could have changed over the last 8 months.
The plans we have show 45 tractor-trailer loading bays, and two additional full drive-in bays (say to drive a smaller van into the warehouse).
The front side of the building along Williamstown-Erial Rd seems to be for employee parking. The warehouse bays for tractor-trailers will be in the back of the building, along with additional tractor-trailer parking.
If it is still correct that a tenant is not signed on at this time, it is possible that the developer could obtain an approval this month and then at a later date return to the Planning Board for approval of a revised set of plans, with new requirements specific to a new tenant.
This “double approval” step is sometimes seen in speculative builds as tenants are more apt to sign on to the building knowing the town is already in favor of the project… and then once construction is ready to start for the new tenant the developer asked for approval on the revised plans.
Warehouse is an Allowed Use
This area of the town is part of Gloucester Township’s New Vision Redevelopment Plan area… specifically the New Vision Business Park District.
Towns can create redevelopment zones in sections of towns, which allow them to create specific zoning rules for that section in hopes of spurring development.
For the New Vision Redevelopment zone, it appears that a warehouse development of this type is already allowed for this 16 acre Williamstown-Erial property.
From the 2016 Ordinance:
The purpose of the New Vision Business Park District is to provide opportunities for comprehensively planned general offices, light manufacturing and warehousing, and planned commercial development within single or multi-tenant buildings that meet the goals and objectives of the New Vision Redevelopment Plan, while also being consistent with existing and planned land development patterns.
Including but not limited necessarily limited to the manufacturing of the following:
New Vision Business Park District : Gloucester Township Ordinance 0-16-07 May 2016
- Beverages, Cosmetics, Pharmaceuticals, Printing and publishing, Electronics and small assembly and/or manufacture, Scientific and optical instruments, Warehousing and distribution.
So with this as an approved use, a Zoning Board review is not required for this project and the developer is moving directly to the Planning Board approval Process.
Additionally it seems all aspects of the planned warehouse fits the existing guidelines established fro the Redevelopment Zone, and does not require any construction oriented variances from the Planning Board either!
That being said, the Planning Board will be reviewing the proposed construction of the project, site layout, parking, traffic patterns etc as part of their approval process.
42Freeway.com first brought this project to readers back on June 27, 2022 when we reported on a special meeting of the Gloucester Township Redevelopment Entity.
In that meeting the redevelopment entity formerly named the property owner as the redeveloper. That was somewhat of a formality in the New Jersey Redevelopment process, for the project and plans to move forward the specific redeveloper must be named.
Community Input
Members of the local community have expressed concerns regarding the project mainly due to its proximity to homes, and additional traffic brought to roadways.
A Facebook group was created called “No New Warehouses in Erial” (FB Link) where residents share information related to this project, as well as the unrelated warehouse project for the Freeway golf course on Sicklerville Rd.
Links and Location
Modani Sicklerville Warehouse
1000 WIlliamstown-Erial Rd
Gloucester Twp, NJ
Planning Board Meeting
January 24, 2023 at 7:00 p.m.
Gloucester Township Municipal Building
Council Room
1261 Chews Landing Road
Laurel Springs, New Jersey 08021,