Revitalization of Radio Lofts building in Camden still delayed

In the fall, Camden officials installed a chain-link fence around the perimeter of the vacant Radio Lofts building in the city's downtown. The measure was intended to secure the aging structure from trespassers, as well as protect passersby from bricks and other falling debris, but it was also a tacit acknowledgment that the long-delayed plan to develop the property was nowhere close to getting started.

The 10-story Cooper Street landmark formerly known as RCA Building No. 8 has long been seen as a next step toward revitalizing Camden's downtown. Philadelphia developer Carl Dranoff, who turned an adjacent former factory site into the luxury Victor Lofts apartment building, has pledged to transform the structure into an 86-unit condominium complex. But since the building was gutted more than three years ago, work has stalled over environmental cleanup costs.

The Camden Redevelopment Agency, which owns the property, secured $4.5 million in grants for environmental remediation but still faces a shortfall of about $1.1 million, said agency director Saundra Johnson. The agency is responsible for cleaning up the property before Dranoff can complete the work, and Johnson said the agency was working to secure additional funding.

"It's been a hard nut to crack," Johnson said Friday. "We just have to find that money."

Dranoff's company, which in the fall put the Victor building up for sale, began its work with the agency to renovate the Radio Lofts close to a decade ago. In an e-mailed statement, Dranoff said his plans for the building hadn't changed.

"We remain as committed as ever to redevelop Radio Lofts," he said Friday.

"It has taken far longer than anyone could have imagined," he added, "but through it all we have continued to devote resources to this project in the hope we will revitalize this building."

The 1922-era building once housed RCA's metal-manufacturing unit, where radios were built. When fire broke out in the 1970s, the water used to extinguish the flames caused toxins from the metals to seep into the concrete floors, and, according to city officials, the extent of the contamination was not discovered until several years ago, after the building was gutted and left exposed to weather.

Since then, windowsills have buckled, and damp debris has at times fallen to the street below, where there is a River Line station. After Rutgers University student Brian K. Everett urged city officials to inspect the property, the fence was erected.

Camden spokesman Vincent Basara and Johnson both said the building was structurally sound and posed no danger to pedestrians.