A $23 million apartment complex promises to bring new vitality to quaint Swedesboro, N.J. But is there enough parking?
“Our goal was to find the right developer to build apartments and retail so we can grow our existing businesses and attract new businesses,” Mayor Thomas W. Fromm said.
The biggest downtown redevelopment project in memory — or perhaps its history — is intended to breathe new life into the quaint heart of Swedesboro, Gloucester County.
The $23 million Nyckel Apartments project will include two buildings with a total of 73 market-rate rental units, as well as 6,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space along Kings Highway, the borough’s main street.
The apartments will be one- and two-bedroom units, with monthly rents ranging from $2,000 to $3,000. The property will include 100 or more parking spaces.
“This was probably our last opportunity to have some control over what happens on a huge open space downtown,” Mayor Thomas W. Fromm said.
The complex will occupy about two acres, including the site of a plastic packaging business that sat vacant for more than a decade until being demolished to make way for the new construction.
“Our goal was to find the right developer to build apartments and retail so we can grow our existing businesses and attract new businesses,” said the mayor, 69, who has been in office since 2003 and has pushed for downtown redevelopment since 2007.
Andrew Crossed, the managing partner of Park Grove Realty, a development firm headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., said: “We go to communities where we’re wanted, and Swedesboro has been a really big advocate of this project. So it made a lot of sense for us to be there.”
The prospect of more people and stores downtown is raising hopes among some Kings Highway businesses, while sparking concerns for others.
“The vitality of downtown is picking up, and everyone’s excited about the new buildings,” said florist Amy Uricher, 55, the owner of Petals & Paints on Kings Highway.
“Having more people walking around would be a positive thing,” said Karen Morrison, the proprietor of the Sweetsboro Pastry Shoppe, also on Kings Highway.
“But without resolving the off-street parking issue, [the project] is going to be a boondoggle,” said Gerry Siglow, board president of the faith-based nonprofit that operates two downtown thrift shops called Kings Things.
Lots of history but too few parking lots?
In a nod to Swedesboro’s rich heritage, Park Grove named its downtown project to honor the Kalmar Nyckel. In the 1600s, the famous tall ship transported Swedes and Finns to the New Sweden Colony in what is now the Philadelphia region.
The Scandinavians settled on the hunting and fishing grounds of the Lenape people and established what is now Swedesboro circa 1638.
After the 498-acre borough was incorporated in 1902, it developed into a regional downtown, complete with the Shoemaker Opera House, which was renamed the Embassy Theater and showed movies until 1950.
In recent years, Swedesboro’s downtown — which contains a rich mix of commercial, residential, sacred, and institutional architecture — has evolved into something of a dining destination.
What the mayor described as “a really cool mix” of restaurants large and small have opened or expanded, including those offering Chinese, Indian, and Mexican cuisines.
“I don’t want to be negative about parking, because I think [the development] is a positive thing,” Morrison said. “But if someone is driving by and wants to stop but they don’t see anywhere to park, that’s an issue.”
Said Uricher: “I feel confident the parking situation will work itself out. The borough is working on more parking, and the [development] itself will have some parking for the public.”
Deep skepticism
Nevertheless, many comments on local social media sites expressed doubt about Swedesboro’s ability to provide enough parking for the demand the development may generate in the town of about 2,800 people.
During an interview, Siglow, whose two thrift shops have been Kings Highway mainstays for 40 years, said that without more parking, “there’s just not going to be a very viable retail community” in downtown Swedesboro.
Not only are there too few off-street parking lots, there’s often too much traffic on Kings Highway for those in search of street parking to slow down and get a spot, he said.
“Look, we’re a nonprofit. But anything that impacts businesses downtown is important to me,” said Siglow, estimating that “at least 50 additional off-street parking spaces” are needed.
Crossed said the podium parking underneath the two apartment structures, as well as surface parking on the development site, would be sufficient to accommodate tenants, customers, and employees of the street-facing retail spaces, and the public.
Fromm said the borough has purchased property along Second Street and will build two surface parking lots with a total of about 30 spaces.
“People generally can find a place to park downtown without going too far,” he said. “The Second Street lots are going to enhance that availability.”
Market forces at work
Although smaller in population and farther from Philadelphia than “inner ring” suburbs on either side of the Delaware, Swedesboro — like Swarthmore and Bristol Borough in Pennsylvania and Haddon Township in South Jersey — is being recognized by developers as a potential market for multifamily housing.
The nationwide shortage of new housing also plays a role.
“We’re finding the younger demographic is renting longer and buying homes later,” said Crossed, adding that “young professionals as well as empty nesters” are likely tenants.
Until recently “a lot of developers haven’t focused on smaller towns,” said Collingswood Mayor Jim Maley, who serves as redevelopment counsel to Swedesboro. “But over time, their prominence has grown a bit in terms of the value developers are seeing in them. Even the big retailers are doing smaller-scale developments in smaller, walkable places.”
On the rise?
With new restaurants and well-attended community events, including a food truck festival and dancing in the park, the center of Swedesboro already is “trending up,” Morrison said.
“A building north of me was torn down, and they built condos there,” she said, adding, “we’re up and coming, but we’re still quaint and friendly.”
Walking along Kings Highway with a friend recently Lauren Petitti, 43, a caregiver and borough resident, said Swedesboro “really does have a homey feeling.
“It’s old, and that’s the beauty of it,” she said.