Landmark Woodbury theater revived as apartments

aseidman@phillynews.com 856-779-3846 @AndrewSeidman

Woodbury unveils the restored GG Green Building, a 133-year-old structure that was considered for demolition just two years ago. Once a theater, developers have turned it into a mixed-use residential building in Woodbury. This is a photo of the building on December 11, 2013. (ELIZABETH ROBERTSON/Staff Photographer)Read more

by By Andrew Seidman, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER WOODBURY Growing up in Woodbury, Sarah Holdcraft spent her Saturdays watching movies at the Rialto Theater in the G.G. Green Building. She sold her home when her parents died in 2006 and reluctantly moved to Lindenwold. But when Holdcraft, 67, learned that the Woodbury landmark would be saved from demolition and turned into a mixed-use building with affordable housing, she knew she had punched her ticket back. "Green brought me home," Holdcraft, who moved into the building in October, said Wednesday. The city officially unveiled the $13.5 million restored building Wednesday, after more than a decade of vacancy and structural damage sustained in an earthquake two years ago. The building, on South Broad Street downtown, has more than 50 apartments, restricted to those who are 55 and older and earn less than 60 percent of the area median income, and a few units for homeless veterans. It includes a 3,500-square-foot community room and 7,000 square feet of retail space. Its preservation had seemed unlikely. Constructed in 1880 as an 1,100-seat opera house, the building is named after Col. George Gill Green, a patent medicine tycoon. In 1919, it was converted into a movie theater. The last entity to inhabit it was a Fashion Bug store, which closed in 2000. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, but efforts to attract new developers "kept falling through," recalled Margaret Westfield, an architect who advocated for the building's preservation. The August 2011 earthquake made matters worse, damaging the exterior and rendering it unsafe. The building was slated for demolition until Montclair, N.J.-based RPM Development Group bought it from the city for $1 and secured financing through the state Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. Mayor Bill Volk said he had been "doubtful" the developer "could pull this off." "This building was in real bad shape," he said. RPM, which has also completed redevelopment projects in Camden, acquired two adjacent properties and demolished them, and renovated the complex. About half the apartments have been rented, and a dance studio is renting part of the commercial space. City and Gloucester County officials hope the redevelopment project will spur further economic growth. Woodbury, the county seat, could certainly use it: Residents spend $44.7 million more at retail stores outside the city than they do inside it, according to a study conducted this year by a group of graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. "Woodbury," county Freeholder Heather Simmons said, "is the epicenter of economic development in Gloucester County.", Inquirer

Published Dec. 12, 2013, 3:01 a.m. ET