Owner, Town Differ Over Property's Best Use

CHERRY HILL, NJ-The best use of a prime undeveloped parcel on Route 70 here may eventually be decided in court. The owner wants to develop an off-track betting facility at the site, while the township of Cherry Hill thinks its best use might be for a corporate headquarters campus.

Barbara Casey, a partner at Ballard Spahr who is representing GS Park Racing, the owner of the property, says a legal fight could be in order if the township designates the property as an “area in need of redevelopment,” according to the Inquirer. GS Park (also known as Pennwood) is a joint venture of gaming companies Penn National Gaming Inc. of Wyomissing, PA and Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment Inc. of Bensalem, PA. Both firms are in competition for a Philadelphia casino license. "(My client) is not interested in selling the property, and we do not believe the property is blighted in order to meet the criteria for an area in need of redevelopment," Casey said. "We intend to fight any attempt by Cherry Hill Township to designate the property as (blighted)."

The township council in June asked the planning board to begin studying new uses for the Route 70 parcel and a 35-acre site on Woodcrest Road across town, the site of the former Victory Refrigeration plant.

"We believe the OTB site, with its access to transportation and retail and its high-visibility location on Route 70, could be an ideal site for a modern corporate campus for a company looking for a suburban headquarters," Cherry Hill Mayor Chuck Cahn said. The mayor has suggested that the OTB site could be the site of a new headquarters property for Subaru of America, which is studying sites in the township and elsewhere to relocate its corporate headquarters from its current Route 70 address. See story in the Inquirer.