First warehouses and now restaurants are rising on former mall site in Burlington Township

The shutdown of a forlorn Sears store in 2018 was Burlington Center’s last gasp. And some of those who watched the once-popular shopping destination withering for years breathed a sigh of relief.

“At one time the mall had been our downtown, and watching it die was more painful than losing it altogether,” said Burlington Township Mayor E.L. “Pete” Green.

Now called The Crossings, the 240-acre mall site on a commercial stretch of Route 541 has been cleared. The first two of what will be four warehouses have been leased, and construction of the first phase of the project’s 30-acre retail component called The Shops at the Crossings is underway.

The mall property “had been desolate for several years,” said Burlington County economic development director Rob Wells, who called the Shops at the Crossings “a huge win” for the township and the county.

“People won’t be driving by a blighted empty space on this major artery through the township any more,” he said. “The success of this corridor is paramount. The development will bring in new retail and services, and attract more.”

The last and the smallest of the four regional malls built in South Jersey after the Cherry Hill Mall debuted in 1961, Burlington Center opened in 1982, when traditional department stores and brick-and-mortar shopping centers still defined and dominated American retailing.

Twenty-five years later, department store closings, online retailing, and the Great Recession fueled the decline of weaker malls across the country and gave rise to “dead mall” fan sites online. South Jersey’s Echelon and Moorestown Malls struggled, but the Burlington Center went into a death spiral as anchor stores closed and marquee tenants departed.

» READ MORE: A new Moorestown Mall is taking shape as medical and residential projects get underway, developers say

Burlington is the only one of the five South Jersey malls to be completely demolished. About half of the Echelon Mall has been razed and redeveloped as the Voorhees Town Center, and new apartments and medical facilities are being added to Moorestown and several other malls in the state.

In Burlington Township, 1.9 million square feet of warehouse space is being developed by MRP Industrial, based in Baltimore, and Clarion Partners, in New York. The Ferber Co., of Ponte Vedra, Fla., is building the Shops at the Crossings on 30 acres along Route 541 (also known as Burlington-Mount Holly Road) at Bromley Boulevard.

The first phase of the retail development includes a mattress shop, a tire store, and several fast-food or fast-casual restaurants such as Raising Cane’s, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, and Panera Bread. Later phases may include a grocery store and a hotel, said Cory Gosik, a leasing and business development associate with Ferber.

“Two of our tenants will be open by the end of the year,” he said. “We’re looking to bring in a day care, a medical center, and a big-box retailer. This will help fix up the entire Route 541 corridor.”

Mayor Green said he hoped a sit-down restaurant with a liquor license, as well as a wholesale buyers club, would be among the retail tenants. He also questioned the need for a tire store in a part of the county already well served by such businesses. Nevertheless, he said, “this project will enhance our township.”

Elliot Byers, Clarion’s senior vice president of acquisitions, said the company was attracted by the area’s “good demographics,” as well as the large site “that allowed for a campus-like setting.” The location between N.J. Turnpike Exit 5 to the east and an I-295 interchange to the west, offers excellent access to key highways, he said.

With land suitable for warehouses increasingly scarce or expensive in Central New Jersey, developers are looking at South Jersey, said Tim Evans, research director at NJ Future, a nonprofit that advocates for sustainable growth. He authored a 2021 report about the challenge of warehouse development statewide.

”Demand for a new generation of warehouses is driven by the volume of international trade coming through the ports of Newark, Bayonne, and Elizabeth,” he said. “South Jersey may be emerging as a freight corridor, so it’s no surprise warehouse developers would be attracted to the Burlington Township site.”

Former mall or shopping center properties may make sense for warehouses “because these retail sites generally are not in neighborhoods, but in places that were built to accommodate car and truck traffic,” Evans said.

Green, who worked at the Burlington Center as a young man, said “a lot of thought and input” has gone into the redevelopment process.

“It is not being developed haphazardly,” said the mayor. “There were shortcomings with the traffic patterns when the mall was open, and now there will be major improvements.”

There’s also a proposal for 500-apartment development, including 100 affordable units, near the movie theater on Bromley Boulevard, said Green.

The mayor also said he is “well pleased” with the progress on redeveloping the mall site.