ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
SJ Mayors Size Up Their Cities
By Jeffrey Steele
Investments in healthcare, transportation, retailing and housing are among the major positives
heralding a bright new era in Southern New Jersey economic development.
Camden City
Nowhere is that dynamism more evident than in Camden City. “Among some of the positives are that
we’re creating real momentum in public safety,” said Mayor Victor Carstarphen of Camden
City. “We have the lowest crime in the city in the last 50 years. Last summer, we had our first
homicide-free summer in 50 years. And last winter we had our first homicide-free winter in 50 years.
Much of the credit for the improvement in safety comes from economic development and more opportunities
for residents.”
Among the economic development initiatives taking place in Camden is Cooper University Health
Care’s $3 billion expansion of its health science campus. The first phase of the project, which
will feature a new 10-story hospital tower adding 125 private rooms, broke ground early last year and is
expected to be completed in 2028.
Meantime, in early October 2025, Camden’s Coriell Institute for Medical Research held a
groundbreaking of its new 92,000-square foot-life sciences campus, which is intended to more than double
the institute’s research space, while firming up its reputation as a leading biotech center. When
finished, the $95 million project will add 150 new positions, headquarters, laboratories and the
Strategic Innovation Center in support of advanced biomedical firms. Completion is scheduled for the
first quarter of 2028.
Camden’s standing as a regional transit hub will be boosted by the more than $250 million
reconstruction of its 37-year-old NJ Transit Walter Rand Transportation Center (WRTC). The project is
intended to help WRTC transition into a cutting-edge, ADA-compliant intermodal transit node offering
seamless connection from NJ Transit buses, PATCO Speedline and local transportation. Featured will be
indoor bus bays, commercial spaces and integration with the adjacent 25-story Beacon Building. The
project’s timeline is expected to be three to five years, starting later this year.
Camden’s Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital is being accorded a $500 million, multi-year
expansion. The anchor of the project, with construction already underway, will be a newly built
six-story pavilion slated for unveiling next year. The expansion will grow the hospital’s size by
35 percent, in the process adding 78 private rooms, 10 operating rooms and advanced neuroscience and
cardiovascular services, including organ transplantation.
“Additional positive investments are being made by our ‘Eds and Meds’ community,
featuring Rowan University and Rutgers University-Camden, along with Cooper University Health Care,
Virtua Health, Coriell Institute and other anchor institutions,” Carstarphen said.
“When these institutions grow, we grow, providing a lot of opportunity for the city’s
residents. Our main business corridors are being revitalized, and when people come into the City of
Camden, they’re finding a transformed environment.”
Among hurdles being addressed by Carstarphen are the need for more investment in quality market-rate
housing, more opportunities for investment in business growth and making sure the progress underway
reaches the city’s neighborhoods. “Everyone talks about our waterfront,” Carstarphen
said. “But our neighborhoods are the heart of Camden.”
Haddon Heights
A residential, walkable Philadelphia suburb nestled between neighbors Haddonfield and Collingswood,
Haddon Heights is a roughly 1.7-mile Camden County borough with a population around 7,500. Mayor Zachary
Houck, first elected in 2019, introduced redevelopment efforts several years ago that are now coming to
fruition. The first of these is the repositioning of two 100-year-old homes on the White Horse Pike that
were converted to a bank 50 years ago. Vacant for the last 20 years, the property has been transformed
into five apartments in what’s called the Jefferson Bank Building Project.
“Though not the first redevelopment project underway, this was the first completed,” Houck
said. “This project showed the power of doing redevelopment really well, taking into consideration
character and charm and doing that respectfully to accommodate economic growth while filling a need for
additional housing.”
Speaking of housing, Haddon Heights has two primary types of residential buildings. The first group is
comprised of Queen Anne and Victorian-style houses from the 1890 to 1910s, many upwards of 3,000 square
feet in size. A second category dates from a post-World War II west side expansion, offering
1,600-square-foot Cape Cods, ranches and Georgians.
“We need to expand our residential footprint, but we’re built out,” Houck said.
“We have to expand creatively and create one- and two-bedroom rental units allowing young
professionals to live and work near downtown . . . The next project on the gateway to our central
business district is 501-503 Station Ave., a turn-of-the-century residence and store front but unused
for a decade. We got two gentlemen to come in who’d done work in Philadelphia and were familiar
with historic properties. Their architect worked with feedback from the community, and now on target for
the fall is a three-story building with ground-floor retail and 12 units above, mostly
one-bedrooms.”
Noting Haddon Heights is a very old town, Houck says city officials need to be highly innovative in
every development plan. “That way, you create economic growth in our town, but also add economic
growth in neighboring towns,” he said.
Bordentown City
Often described as one of New Jersey’s prettiest towns, 4,000-resident Bordentown City is a
one-square mile municipality in Burlington County recognized for its historic, picture-postcard-worthy
and walkable downtown. Speaking of that downtown, Mayor Stephanie Lagos called it “an incredible,
bustling, thriving central business district, and it’s just getting better and better as the
months and years progress.”
Beautiful historic buildings line the main commercial artery of Farnsworth Avenue. The area offers
eight restaurants, two coffee shops and an independently-owned yoga studio. Also featured is a small
frozen confection store called The Ice Cream Boutique, and a candy shop and multiple art spaces,
including a gallery.
On June 6, a new menswear and home store called Haberdashery opened by local owners who also own Icon
Boutique in Bordentown City. Also featured is a bookstore called The Old Book Shop, which soon will have
camaraderie from a new book purveyor, Austen’s Shelf, Lagos said.
Redevelopment efforts include the creation of townhouses on what is now a parcel next to Clare Estates
on Crosswicks Street. Another undertaking involves the redevelopment of the old Ocean Spray Cranberry
Juice factory on East Park Street. “That’s a large land parcel with the factory still there,
and we’re working with the owner to redevelop it into housing,” Lagos said.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to gain more housing. Not a lot of homes come up for sale in
Bordentown City.”
Lagos terms her city a blending of historical, cultural and artistic charms. “It’s a great
place to visit, to walk, to grab a cup of coffee and a yoga lesson, and learn a little bit about
American history at the same time.”
“Our main business corridors are being revitalized, and when people come into the City of Camden,
they’re finding a transformed environment.”
– Camden City
Mayor Victor Carstarphen
Bordentown City’s downtown is “an incredible, bustling, thriving central business district,
and it’s just getting better and better as the months and years progress.”
– Bordentown City Mayor Stephanie Lagos
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