Plans for the development of a new McDonald’s fast-food restaurant for Brooklawn NJ at the site of a former church property are close to being ready for Borough review. That hearing is expected to take place this fall.
Additionally, in this article I give a brief update on two other development projects taking place in the small Camden County Borough of Brooklawn… Bogey’s Bar and also a two-building Cannabis facility.
For the Brooklawn McDonald’s restaurant project , the developer is expected to present the project to the Planning and Zoning Boards possibly as soon as November’s meeting on the 13th. Once the date is locked in a public notice and agenda will be made available to the public.
The McDonald’s restaurant is being proposed for the site of the former Saint Maurice Church on Route 130 at Community Road. The church property sits adjacent to the town’s Barth Baseball fields (outfield), and close to the Alice Costello school (with a nearby playground).
As you would expect this will be an all new development for the McDonald’s, which will offer indoor seating and a drive-thru.
The McDonald’s restaurant building will be developed closer to Route 130, with the car access only from Brooklawn’s Community Road side-street. There will be no access from Route 130 directly into the McDonald’s lot.
Parking for the new McDonald’s will be positioned to the rear of the property, which will require the demolition of the church and rectory buildings.
Effectively the building and parking lot areas will be flipped around front-to-back.
Currently, the former church parking lot is also utilized by teachers at Brooklawn’s Alice Costello school. As part of this project, a dedicated teachers parking lot supporting 12 cars will also be developed.
Additionally, with the ball fields being located next to the (planned) McDonald’s property, additional fencing will be installed to separate the baseball field (outfield) from the new development. A Brooklawn Borough representative tells me that lighting upgrades are also planned for the baseball fields.
In 2011, Brooklawn’s Saint Maurice and Westville’s Saint Anne Church congregations were merged with Bellmawr Annunciation to become Saint Joachim Church in Bellmawr. The Brooklawn church building which opened in 1954… was then closed.
In 2014 the Brooklawn Board of Education purchased the property with plans of converting the buildings into classrooms and administrative offices, but those plans did not come to fruition.
Soon after , the Brooklawn Board of Education put the property up for sale.
In the Spring of 2023, the Borough of Brooklawn purchased the property from the Board of Education with the intent of making it available for redevelopment.
Brooklawn Committee Meeting Minutes show that starting last year a redevelopment effort has been underway with Delco Development as the chosen redeveloper of the property. Delco has contracted with McDonald’s to be the tenant at the property.
I’m being told at this point all of the core contractual aspects of the project are locked in including the McDonald’s agreement… with it all contingent of course on the developer gaining the full Brooklawn Borough approval from the Planning and Zoning Committee.
Several Brooklawn Projects in Process
While Brooklawn is a small borough in South Jersey, it sits at the crossroads of several major roadways including Route 130 and Kings Highway… which brings thousands of commuters through the area, and attracts the interest of developers.
Two other projects being developed in Brooklawn right now are the Bogey’s Bar and Restaurant along the Big Timber Creek, as well as the cannabis grow and manufacturing buildings being developed on the former Weber’s Drive-In property on Route 130.
I’ve covered both of these projects previously and wrote an update on Bogey’s over the summer, so this is more of a quick update.
Bogey’s Brooklawn
For the Bogey’s project on Creek Road… the waterfront marina building development has progressed to having the exterior walls and the core of roof framed ahead of the exterior roof sheeting being installed.
One of the corners of the building facing the Creek is notched out, which gives the idea of how there will glass in that corner of the restaurant to open it up to the beautiful waterway.
While we are seeing significant progress on the Bogey’s project this summer, local owner expects to open in 2026.
Brooklawn Cannabis Grow and Manufacture
The former Weber’s Drive-in and Miniature Golf Property is seeing significant redevelopment also with two buildings rising on the property.
Both of the buildings (at Weber’s) are to support aspects of a cannabis grow and manufacture business. One building will be focused on growing cannabis and the other will be for the manufacturer of cannabis products, which will be sold in retail stores at other locations.
This property will not have a retail store.
One of the buildings is further along in development process and will be the growing facility. It includes sophisticated advanced technology to lock in any aromas within the facility.
The grow building is expected to be operational in early 2025, and then about six months later the second building (for manufacture) will be ready.
Links and Locations
McDonald’s Brooklawn (Planned)
Rt 130 and Community Ave
Brooklawn NJ