When it was announced five years ago, the plan for Lindenwold's redevelopment zone seemed unstoppable. About 2,200 apartments and condominiums were set to be demolished and replaced with about 1,000 housing units. A retail area, park, and community club also were proposed.
By summer 2004, an architect had delivered plans depicting the new community. Appraisers were evaluating properties to be acquired before demolition. And borough officials were talking with a telecommunications company, hoping to lure it as an anchor employer.
Then everything fell apart.
The economy went bust. Property values fell. And the owners of some of the apartment complexes filed lawsuits, asking the court to exclude their areas from redevelopment. They said that their properties were not blighted and that redevelopment was not feasible.
Today, Lindenwold officials are still looking for developers, but have scaled back their plans, along with the size of the redevelopment zone. Once covering five apartment and condominium complexes, it now takes in three, borough officials said.
"At the end of the day, it's all about the numbers. I'd still like to do what we set out to do, but I'm not sure that's realistic," Mayor Frank DeLucca Jr. said. "You've got to do what works. If an alpaca farm would work there, I'd do that."
This week, DeLucca was to meet with a developer interested in the Green Tree apartments, one of the three complexes still in the redevelopment zone. "We will listen to him, but we want to look at more than one" apartment complex, he said. "We want to address everything" in the redevelopment zone.
Unfortunately, the recession and credit crisis have made that job difficult, Lindenwold Solicitor John Kearney said.
"Everything we were looking at depended on the continuing rise in property values," he said. "You could borrow and pay off the debt with increased revenue from the property.
"But with what we've seen in the last two years, that's impossible. The big deal we had collapsed under the weight of what's happened."
Some apartment owners, such as Paul Rogers, president of Horizon Services, which manages Green Tree, were never convinced the redevelopment proposal would work. "I don't know how the plan is financially feasible," he said.
Lindenwold Borough Council originally approved a 114-acre redevelopment zone in May 2004, clearing the way for the demolition of apartment complexes in the Gibbsboro Road corridor, running nearly a mile between the White Horse Pike and Egg Harbor Road.
Officials envisioned a "transit village" with a mix of housing, offices, and shops, a convenient retail destination that would attract people across the region.
Lindenwold's proximity to the PATCO High-Speed Line had made it a prime location for apartments.
But DeLucca and other borough officials said change was necessary because of dilapidated buildings, overcrowded units, and crime in the area.
The apartment complexes fought back in court. Owners said the condition of their properties was not as bad as portrayed by the town and did not justify the redevelopment zone.
Some described the plan as "ethnic cleansing," saying it targeted low-income residents, including large numbers of Hispanics and African Americans.
DeLucca disputed that, saying he was proud of the borough's diversity and criticizing opponents for "playing the race card."
"What we're looking at now is the 55-and-over rental market," he said. "I have a house that's paid off and I would like to downsize, go where I don't have to cut the grass.
"But if I buy a property now, it could be worth less later. If I rent, that's less of a gamble. I keep the money from my house sale in the bank and save $7,000 in property taxes. This is the kind of market I'm looking at."
Meanwhile, some apartment complex owners say the borough has made doing business more difficult by delaying the issuance of certificates of occupancy for minor infractions. They also have been battling with the borough over an ordinance passed last year that imposed an annual inspection fee of $50 per apartment unit.
Borough officials said inspections originally were done whenever there was a change in occupancy, but "that didn't work," Kearney said. "We had an officer chase a suspect into a vacant unit where there were holes in the floor. [Because of that,] we put stickers outside to give emergency personnel a heads-up."
The borough also crafted the new inspection ordinance, which has been challenged by many apartment complexes in a lawsuit now in state Superior Court.
"The effect of the inspections is to create one of the most difficult apartment rental markets in South Jersey," said Rogers, who is not a party to the suit. "The more money we spend on the property, the more difficult they make it to pass a certificate-of-occupancy inspection.
"They [borough officials] are on my property three or four times a day, looking for violations," Rogers said, adding that he has paid more than $4 million in taxes to the borough over the last 10 years.
The redevelopment proposal and the uncertainty of the last few years have affected the rental market and condo sales. Green Tree is 72 percent occupied; another complex in the redevelopment zone, Coachman Manor, is 85 percent filled.
"The threat of taking apartments and condos by eminent domain put the value of our real estate in the garbage," said Pat Green, 68, a condo owner at Arborwood III, a complex that was one of the two sites dropped from the redevelopment zone.
"It also brought in slumlords who bought the condos dirt cheap and then rented them. I paid $40,000 for mine and it went down to $17,000 and is slowly coming up. Now, the condos are selling for $35,000 and above."
DeLucca said several apartment and condo complexes "need a major rehabilitation. My goal is to increase the quality of life."
But with the economy sagging, "we don't know where we're going," he said. "Nobody has any money. We don't know the future."
The borough's efforts "have been stymied at every turn," added Kearney, "but we've never stopped talking to developers. We've talked to a dozen. It's only a matter of time."
Contact staff writer Edward Colimore at 856-779-3833 or ecolimore@phillynews.com.
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