Cherry Hill to redevelop area near Cooper River

Kapil Wadera lifted the lid of a domed chafing dish, and a cloud of cumin, onion, and coriander rose at Cherry Hill's Palace of Asia restaurant.

"This is the chicken tandoori," explained Wadera, gesturing to the reddish-pink legs and breasts. "It's made in clay pots."

Other lids on the table revealed chicken breasts in a saffron and yogurt sauce, and dishes bearing names like lamb kadai and also gobhi - seasoned cauliflower and potato.

Come March, however, bulldozers and backhoes will demolish this traditional Northern Indian restaurant, which for 10 years has overlooked the scenic Cooper River.

With vigor, Cherry Hill has begun using redevelopment - a state-sanctioned combination of tax incentives, spot zoning, negotiated purchases, and the implicit threat of eminent domain - to start replacing vacant or shabby properties.

Palace of India is neither. But it sits on a 7.3 acre plot next to the long-vacant Faith Life Christian Center and a faded budget motel, America's Best Value Inn, fronting Route 70.

Both are slated for demolition in the spring as part of the township's Park Boulevard Gateway Redevelopment Plan. Palace of Asia is caught in the middle.

"I just found out about this in October," said owner Sukhdev Kabow, who leases the restaurant space from the motel. He said he would have liked more time to find a new location.

Although Kabow is negotiating to purchase the former Penang restaurant on Route 38 and feels confident his "loyal" patrons will follow him, redevelopment is not always popular with the property owners and tenants in its path.

"I don't know where I'll go next," said Michael Grossman, a resident of the motel since 2013.

Grossman, 65, who ran a literacy mentoring program in Camden for nine years, said his Social Security disability payments are enough to pay the $950 monthly rent.

"That includes heat, air-conditioning, water, electricity, TV and phone," he said. He's made friends, he said, and the staff "are like family."

When a property becomes an eyesore or drags down property values, "it's up to the town to take a good look and ask 'What would be its best and highest use?' " said Erin Gill, chief of staff to Mayor Chuck Cahn.

The goal, Gill said, is to replace them with structures that bolster the tax base and please the eye.

With that in mind, Cherry Hill's planning board on Monday gave final approval to what it calls the Park Boulevard plan, the first of five projects now in its redevelopment pipeline.

Rising on the site of the Christian center, motel, and restaurant will be two residential buildings: a three- and four-story apartment complex of 176 units, a swimming pool, and outdoor recreation areas.

Next door will be 16 townhouses.

"It's a very prescriptive plan, right down to the outdoor furniture and setbacks and bike racks," the township's community development director, Paul Stridick, said last week.

Many of the units will feature views of Cooper River Park. Plans also call for a rooftop sitting area. Twenty-nine units will be part of the township's affordable housing (Mount Laurel) obligation.

First Montgomery Group of Haddonfield, which in 2013 had sought to build 840 apartments on the site of the Woodcrest Country Club, is acquiring the parcels and will likely be named redeveloper. First Montgomery did not return a request for comment.

Four other locales are targeted for redevelopment. They are:

Hampton Road Gateway: 19 acres between Hampton Road and Cuthbert Boulevard, opposite the Merchantville Country Club.

Surrounded by a residential neighborhood, the property includes the former Saunders Publishing Co. printing plant, vacant 10 years and slated for demolition. The township envisions 300 apartments overlooking the course.

First Montgomery also is moving toward acquiring the Hampton Road site, according to the township, which declared it and the Park Boulevard parcels redevelopment areas last April.

Victory Gateway: 35 acres at 110 Woodcrest Rd., close to Woodcrest Station. Now cleared, the site was for six decades home to the Victory Refrigeration manufacturing plant, which closed in 2013.

Although the township named Victory a development area that year, the planning board is still studying options there. It's owned by Vineland Construction Co., which did not return a call requesting comment.

"It's not always the best and highest use to build a factory in Cherry Hill," Stridick said. The township envisions a mixed use of apartments and perhaps a hotel, nursing home, or retail shopping on the site.

Route 38 Gateway: 14 acres near the Cuthbert Boulevard PSE&G substation, comprising the Feather Nest Inn, Days Inn and Hillside Inn are being studied for possible redevelopment.

Cuthbert Boulevard Gateway: 13 acres comprising a vacant Verizon storage site; the empty Baker Lanes bowling alley; the "adult-oriented" Inn of the Dove, and DuBell Lumber, a home supply store.

Like the Route 38 locale, Cuthbert has not been formally named a redevelopment area.

DuBell's manager, John Eaise, last week said he had "heard rumors" about redevelopment "but nothing specific." Eaise called theirs "a good location" and "unquestionably a thriving business," adding: "We don't want to move if we don't have to."

Stridick agrees. "DuBell is a viable, active, strong business," he said. "We don't want to upset something that's not broken."

But the Inn of the Dove seems a prime target.

The website Trip Advisor, which invites travelers to rate their stays at hotels, lists "terrible" as the overwhelming response for the Inn, with many complaining of litter and dirty rooms.

A person at Inn of the Dove said the owner was out of the country, and no one was available for comment.

(Other motels bearing the name Inn of the Dove are owned and operated independently of the Cherry Hill site.)

For B.S. Dhillon, owner of the America's Best Value Inn on Route 70, the township's redevelopment project has fit well into his plans.

"I was planning to retire in about two years," said Dhillon, who acquired the foreclosed motel in 1994.

He got close to his asking price, "so for me it's not bad at all."

"Sometimes change is scary," he said. "Sometimes it's for the better."

doreilly@phillynews.com

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