Historical homes in Haddonfield are becoming an inn with a restaurant and condominiums

After languishing for years, two historical houses and a prominent parcel of land in the heart of Haddonfield are being sold to developers.

The borough commission is selling the late 18th-century Boxwood Hall for $200,000 and Lullworth Hall, a Victorian landmark, for $50,000. Both are on the state and national registers of historic places. Commissioners also have approved a conditional redevelopment agreement with a North Jersey company for 8.2 acres of the former Bancroft school campus.

Development proposals call for a 10-room inn and a restaurant at Boxwood, which is on Haddon Avenue; two condominiums in Lullworth on East Kings Highway, and two in its adjacent carriage house, and a $50 million complex of 120 apartments, including 18 affordable units, on the former Bancroft acreage at East Kings Highway and Hopkins Lane.

“Overall, this is a win,” Mayor Colleen Bianco Bezich said, adding that while she and fellow Borough Commissioners Kevin Roche and Frank Troy had “very different ideas, we reached a creative consensus.”

Public reaction to the prospect of change at the three locations — as well as to the purchase prices — has been mixed at best.

“People are upset by the recent history of Boxwood and Lullworth,” said Brian Kelly, whose Haddonfield United page on Facebook has 29,000 followers. “They’re upset by the way these houses fell apart under [borough ownership] due to what looked like demolition by neglect. And now they’re being given away.”

Said Commissioner Roche: “There’s been a lot of noise on social media that the price being paid does not reflect what people in Haddonfield are paying on average for homes.”

But the borough, he said, needed “to get these properties off our balance sheet and back on the tax rolls.”

Boxwood Hall was built by a descendant of Haddonfield’s founding family. Its yard and gardens, significant portions of which survive, were where the naturalist Samuel Nicholson Rhoads collected bird specimens for Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences.

The borough bought the property for $1.4 million in 2014 to settle a lawsuit by a developer who proposed building a 33-unit apartment complex on the site.

The lush 1.5 acres around the property continue to be a focus of preservation efforts that began in 2009, said Kim Custer, who moved to Burlington County several years ago. She continues to call for creating a public park there.

“The residents of Haddonfield have spent an enormous amount of time, effort, and tax dollars to preserve the historic setting of the Boxwood Hall property,” she said. “I am disappointed that the current administration has taken away the sizable public park that was in the original redevelopment plan and reduced it down to just a small corner of the property.”

Lullworth Hall was built in 1886 by a Philadelphia businessman but is best known for its association, beginning in 1919, with the school founded by special education pioneer Margaret Bancroft. The borough obtained the 1.1-acre site after the school moved its main campus to Mount Laurel in 2018.

Debate over the future of the Bancroft site began soon after the school announced plans to move out in 2014. Borough residents fought hard against developer Brian O’Neill’s 2015 proposal to build an addiction treatment center on the site as well as his subsequent plan for 80 or more market-rate townhouses. Haddonfield settled a lawsuit brought by the developer for $3.25 million in 2023.

The Bancroft site also has long been the focus of local opposition to creating affordable housing in the borough, which is required by state law. Haddonfield has agreed to include at least 10 affordable units on the site. Another 20 affordable townhouses are under construction on Snowden Avenue, and the borough has purchased and will rent out eight properties in various parts of town.

All three commissioners said during interviews that they had informally solicited interest in Lullworth and Boxwood from developers and real estate professionals, and also had formally done so as Haddonfield’s governing body.

Last year, after failing to elicit any response to a request for proposals issued by the borough, Lullworth was listed with a local Realtor. It drew a single offer, from the Haddonfield Development Group LLC, which was selected by the commission.

Just two potential developers responded to a request for proposals for Boxwood, and one was chosen.

“For all their history and beauty, there are elements of both houses that are not as palatable to developers in the [economic] environment we’re in,” said Bianco Bezich.

Selling them “was really a recognition that ownership of these properties required continuous investment without productive uses,” she said.

Overseen by New Jersey’s Historic Preservation Office, alterations to buildings on the state’s historic register can prove to be constraining and expensive. The protected status of interior spaces and features at Lullworth made it impossible to include more than two condominiums inside the structure, borough officials said.

Both Lullworth and Boxwood were tough sells in a high-interest-rate environment, and a high water table was among the factors that sank an ambitious proposal to build a 350-seat performing arts center at Boxwood in the previous decade.

“Short of turning Lullworth back into a single-family home,” Bianco Bezich said, “there aren’t a lot of things that can [readily] be done with it.”

The commissioners had a harder time determining the future of the Bancroft property.

Bianco Bezich and Roche supported naming Woodmont Properties LLC of Fairfield Township, Essex County, as conditional redeveloper of the 8.2 acres. But Troy voted no.

Troy said many local residents with whom he has spoken recently would prefer a plan that includes houses for sale, rather than just apartments for rent, to be built there.

Bianco Bezich also is advocating that four acres adjacent to the redevelopment site at Bancroft be set aside as green space for residents and the public.

“We’re honored to own such a significant piece of history in Haddonfield,” said Michael Pasquarello, who with his wife, Jeniphur, will own and operate the proposed inn, as well as a restaurant, at Boxwood.

The couple owns the 13th Street Restaurant Group, which includes Cafe Lift on Kings Highway in Haddonfield and three Philadelphia restaurants. They moved to Haddonfield from South Philly a dozen years ago and are the parents of three children.

“Preservation is our goal, [including] the trees and the plants at Boxwood. We want to preserve the property and respectfully add modern comforts and amenities,” said Michael Pasquarello.

A lack of lodging places is “a huge missing piece” in Haddonfield, he said, adding that the property also will have “community focused space” and host small events.

Representatives of Lullworth’s new owners, the Haddonfield Development Group LLC, could not be reached for comment.

Woodmont Properties was selected among nine that responded to the borough’s request for proposals to redevelop the Bancroft site.

“The site has something of a checkered past and has been stuck on the development side,” said Steve Santola, executive vice president of Woodmont Properties. “We like to take on sites that have not been moving forward and getting them unstuck.”

Most of Woodmont’s properties and development projects are in Central and North Jersey as well as Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. In South Jersey, the company developed the Woodmont Town Square at Washington Township, Gloucester County.

“Haddonfield is one of the premier communities in New Jersey, but the market doesn’t have any strong luxury apartments with clubhouses, pools, fitness centers, and nine-foot ceilings ― the style of living the market certainly seems to be looking for,” Santola said.