Bancroft to sell Haddonfield campus, move school to Mt. Laurel

Bancroft officials announced Tuesday that they have signed a purchase agreement for 80 acres in the Bishops Gate section of Mount Laurel and intend to move their school and residential program there in the next three or four years.

Their Haddonfield campus has been put on the market, the officials said.

The announcement came less than two weeks after their Haddonfield acreage was relegated to last of three properties Camden County officials are contemplating acquiring to preserve open space.

"I am very excited to make this announcement because Bancroft has waited far too long to resolve the lack of space on our Haddonfield property," said Toni Pergolin, Bancroft president.

While Bancroft provides a range of services to children and adults with intellectual or development disabilities and adults needing neurological rehabilitation, Pergolin said, "we are known best for the Bancroft School, which is where it all started. We need a modern, specialized facility for our students, and today we are formally starting that process."

Last week, Bancroft announced that it would move its executive and administrative offices to a 41,500-square-foot headquarters the agency has bought on Caldwell Road in Cherry Hill. Earlier, agency officials announced expansion of the Bancroft Brain Injury Rehabilitation program into a 18,000-square-foot building in Mount Laurel.

Bancroft has tried to sell its 19-acre Haddonfield campus several times in the last nine years. In January 2013, Haddonfield voters narrowly defeated a hotly debated $12 million bond referendum that would have allowed the school district to buy the Bancroft land.

Before the school district proposed buying the land, Haddonfield officials had been working on a redevelopment plan for the property.

"We sort of put the whole redevelopment plan on hold," Mayor Jeff Kasko said.

Some of the proposed uses were parkland, school use, and senior housing.

Without county open space funding, Kasko said, total public use of the land "is unrealistic."

Pergolin said Bancroft has engaged CBRE, a global real estate firm, to speak to potential buyers. At present, there is no asking price, she said.

A recent appraisal performed for the county on 13 of the 19 acres came in at $7.8 million.

Pergolin said she would still like the county to acquire the land, despite the county open space advisory committee's recent show of disinterest.

"It definitely would be great for Haddonfield, and it would make it easier, so we are hopeful," she said.

Ultimately, she said, the land will go to the highest bidder.

Pergolin declined to say what Bancroft will pay for the Mount Laurel acreage.

Bancroft's land is the most costly of the three open-space proposals the county has been considering. With limited state Green Acres funding for such acquisitions, the county has to set priorities, said county Freeholder Jeffrey L. Nash.

If voters approve a state referendum next month to allocate Green Acres fund annually, "that would help," Nash said. "It doesn't guarantee the Haddonfield property would be funded."

Bancroft estimates it will take one or two years to build its facilities. The school and residential program will continue to operate on the Haddonfield campus until the new facility is ready, Bancroft spokeswoman Kate Moran said.

Bancroft employs more than 1,000 people in Camden County and has been in Haddonfield for 131 years.