A series of major residential proposals could add hundreds of new units to a town on the edge of South Jersey’s suburban sprawl.
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The Voorhees Planning Board has been busy. The body this month approved a proposal to convert an office tower into 178 apartments, reviewed plans for 120 new affordable units on the other side of town, and in December it will consider final approvals for a proposal for 117 senior apartments.
Wayne-based RP 201 Laurel Property Owner LLC, whose ownership includes Ira Lubert, received preliminary and final major site plan approvals for the conversion of the Four Echelon Plaza office tower into apartments after buying it for $4.3M last year, Jersey Digs reported.
The 51-year-old office building at 201 Laurel Road that was entirely vacant by 2024 is listed on the National Historic Register as “an early example of precast concrete in modern architecture.”
It is adjacent to the former Echelon Mall, where Hoboken Brownstone Co. last year shared plans for a mixed-use redevelopment including 217 market-rate townhomes, 50 affordable for-sale townhomes and 60 affordable rentals.
Lubert’s plans for Four Echelon aren't the first effort to redevelop the building for residential purposes. Pinnacle Luxury Residences LLC got approvals for a senior housing project on the site in 2024 that never came to fruition.
But another developer believes the demand in that sector still exists in Voorhees. FP Voorhees LLC secured initial approvals in 2024 to build 117 active senior units at the corner of Executive and Voorhees drives in front of SpringHill Suites.
The developer will go before the Zoning Board for final major site approval in December, 70and73 reported. The site is adjacent to a parcel by the AMC movie theater where Voorhees Family Apartments LLC got the green light to build 60 affordable units in August.
That project will satisfy about one-third of the 181-unit affordable housing obligation Voorhees identified in its 2025 Housing Element and Fair Share Plan.
The vast majority of the rest will be addressed by the $50M Oaks at Centennial project, where the Michaels Organization plans to build 120 affordable units down the road from the Voorhees Main Street shopping center.
The affordable push in Voorhees and other suburban municipalities across New Jersey has come in response to a 2024 bill clarifying the obligations they have under the Mount Laurel doctrine. The 1975 New Jersey Supreme Court decision required local governments to use zoning to further attainable housing production.
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