Page 14 - RE-NJ

12 MAY 2022
CAMDEN CALLING
City leaders focused on new housing, population growth after years of large corporate projects
High-profile public and corporate developments — spurred by generous tax breaks — have
transformed Camden over the last generation. There are gleaming new headquarters for Subaru and American Water, among others, and huge investments by institutional behemoths like Rutgers University and Cooper University Hospital.
But now, city officials are concentrating on investing in quality-of-life improvements — in housing, police, education and parks — that they believe are the missing links in truly transforming this long-beleaguered
city and reversing its decades-long population declines. Camden now has
about 75,000 residents — about half the number from its peak in 1950.
Local leaders say new housing is key in repopulating the city and convincing the thousands of employees who now come to work in Camden each day to live there. They are buoyed by recent jumps in real estate values, but those prices are still among the lowest in
the state. The median home price in Camden was just about $100,000 in March 2022, according to Realtor.com, as compared to $250,000 for Camden County overall.
“As a strategic matter, housing is the next big piece ... The market is quite ripe,” said Kris Kolluri, CEO of the Camden Community Partnership,
a nonprofit group that promotes economic development in the city. With its proximity to
Philadelphia,
Kolluri said
Camden could be
on the precipice
of the kind
of residential
renaissance that
transformed
Hoboken or
Jersey City, echoing a long-held aspiration of boosters in the region.
The mayor’s office said there has been an investment of $366 million in Camden’s housing stock during the past six to eight years, including 156
new market-rate units as a part of 11 Cooper Station, a luxury development by The Michaels Organization.
Also underway is a $145 million reconstruction of Ablett Village — a public housing development on the city’s east end — by Michaels and
the Housing Authority of the City of Camden. The developer broke ground earlier this year on the first of the project’s four phases, which will yield 75 affordable townhome-style units across three separate sites in East Camden, launching what will be a total of 425 mixed-income homes.
“One of the core principals is
to protect existing residents so gentrification doesn’t become the
By Patricia Alex
Kris Kolluri
After years of high-profile public and corporate development projects, Camden city officials are concentrating on investing in quality-of-life improvements — namely, housing, police, education and parks — that they believe will help draw new residents and complete its transformation after decades of population declines. Pictured here is 11 Cooper Station, a new 156-unit luxury apartment building by The Michaels Organization.
norm,” Kolluri said. “Camden doesn’t have an affordability problem, it’s an inventory and choice problem.”
The city is clearing
the way for hundreds
of smaller projects
that could lead to
thousands more
housing units over the
next few years, Mayor
Vic Carstarphen
said. A $15 million
residential demolition
program is underway
to eliminate 300
unsafe housing
units that will make
room for privately
developed infill units
— namely, smaller
multifamily projects
— that are popping
up all over the city.
It’s development
that seems more
organic than the high-
profile commercial
investments, officials
say.
“A lot of investment groups are putting
Courtesy: Camden Community Partnership