Costco Pitched for Vacant Garden State Park Site

A hotel and office plan at Garden State Park, abandoned when the real estate market tanked, could become home to a Costco under plans currently under review at the township.

The members-only warehouse club is proposing a 157,845-square-foot store for Cherry Hill, along with about 18,500 square feet of pad sites, for what township officials referred to as the Turnberry property—18.5 acres along the New Jersey Transit rail line, just west of Home Depot, that’s sat undeveloped since the racetrack came down.

Though the plans are in—a foot-thick sheaf of documents, from traffic studies to the actual site plan currently sit in the township’s office of community development—it could be some time before the retail giant would get its shot to score the planning board’s approval.

Paul Stridick, Cherry Hill’s planning director, wouldn’t speculate on a timeline for getting to that point, saying he and others will first need to go through what Costco is proposing.

“I really don’t know yet, because we’ve just begun that process,” he said. “We need to get it out to all of our consultants…and really get under the hood on it.”

One thing is for sure, though—if it makes it that far, the township will require the store to blend in with the overall brick-and-masonry theme of the Garden State Park development thus far.

“That’s one of the things we’re absolutely concerned about, that it really fit in appropriately,” Stridick said. “It’s not going to be just a metal box.”

Still, just the chance bringing Costco to the township is a positive, officials said, and getting use out of a property that has lain fallow for a decade is a big win.

“We’re really excited about the possibility,” spokeswoman Bridget Palmer said.

Though the original plan for the site included roughly a million square feet of office space and a 150-room hotel, it never materialized—and was unlikely to ever be complete, given current conditions, officials said.

“I don’t know anybody who’s even built 100,000 square feet of office space,” Stridick said. “That’s kind of ambitious for this time. It’s good to get a proposal for that property.”

Specifics on several pad sites—two slated for retail and two others marked for a bank and a restaurant—weren't included with the plans.

If built, it would be just the second Costco in the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia—the other is in Mount Laurel—making the company more accessible to Camden and Gloucester counties. Costco officials couldn't be reached for comment on the project.

There still remains one undeveloped piece of the Garden State Park project—the 10-acre plot reserved for an off-track betting site, which is currently the subject of a redevelopment study approved by the township council this summer.

The owners of that 10-acre plot, GS Park Racing LP, have vowed to fight any redevelopment designation, saying they still have plans for the property.

The firm has plans good at least through the end of 2014, and a representative said there is a still long-term vision for the plot.

“That 10 acres was always meant to go to the operators of the track,” said attorney Barbara Casey of Ballard Spahr, 

who represents GS Park Racing. “Whether that site becomes an off-track wagering facility or it’s utilized for some other business purpose…it has value to them.”