The once-shuttered Burlington Center mall in New Jersey has been transformed into The Crossings, an industrial-led, mixed-use redevelopment, bringing back opportunity, jobs, tax revenue, and activity to the Burlington Township community. The ongoing six-year, more than $600 million redevelopment has resulted in a dynamic mixed-use development that integrates warehouse product along with complementary retail, multifamily, and hospitality uses.
Originally opened in the early 1980s, Burlington Center experienced a steady decline over the years which resulted in the mall changing hands several times before closing permanently in 2019. Clarion Partners and Baltimore-based MRP Industrial acquired Burlington Center in early 2019 for $22 million with a vision to capitalize on its strategic location near interstate networks and population centers. The Clarion/MRP team initially outlined a concept plan comprised entirely of industrial space. However, Clarion/MRP pivoted to a mixed-use approach following feedback from local government officials and the public, eventually collaborating with all key stakeholders for more than three years to finalize the site plan and building designs.
To realize the master-planned vision for the industrial-anchored redevelopment strategy, the Clarion/MRP team had to acquire several neighboring land parcels from both private and public parties, including ancillary parcels and a jughandle to construct immediately available pad sites to facilitate an optimal retail corner with high visibility. In total, the team acquired six separate parcels for a total of nearly $52 million.
Industrial Plans
The development team began construction on the first industrial building, totaling 635,000 square feet, in the Westampton Township portion of the redevelopment assemblage in summer 2020. The development of a 940,000-square-foot warehouse and a 750,000-square-foot warehouse followed shortly thereafter, and pad ready sitework including certain utility improvements have been completed for the fourth and final 210,000-square-foot industrial development on the site.
Each industrial building was constructed with sustainable design features that maximize energy and water resource utilization, benefiting both the environment and tenant operating costs. Two of the buildings will receive LEED Silver certification, and the planned 210,000-square-foot structure is anticipated to do the same.*
Amenities integrated into the project design include a nearly mile-long, 10-foot-wide multipurpose walking path, as well as two charging stations outside each warehouse building and a new on-site NJ Transit bus stop for business park employees. More than 160 trees and 1,300 pieces of shrubbery were installed, in addition to an on-site wetland basin with thousands of wetland grass plugs that added vegetation to the former mall site.
Retail Plans
Leveraging more than 150,000 consumers residing within a 6-mile radius of the site, Ferber Company was selected to develop several free-standing buildings on the speculative pad sites suitable for quick-service restaurants and other retail uses. Only two years after pad site development, many established retailers are operational and outperforming projections, with more construction planned in 2024.
Affordable Housing Plans
MRP Industrial sold land to Jefferson Apartment Group (JAG) to construct a 500-unit multifamily development spanning 20 buildings and consisting of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and townhouses. Twenty percent of the development's units are affordable housing, helping to address the state's housing shortage and Burlington Township's Commission of Affordable Housing (COAH) obligations. The groundbreaking occurred in January 2024 and JAG is marketing completion of the multifamily development as Q4 2025.
Hospitality Plans
Negotiations are in the final stages for a 150-room full-service hotel with conference and meeting facilities, with a tentative groundbreaking in December 2024.
Traffic Control Plans
To achieve a high level of safety and reliable flow of traffic, the campus features six connection points to municipal and county roadways, with enhanced landscape buffers and architectural walls, which creates a natural separation of the industrial and retail traffic. This required nearly $3 million worth of off-site road improvements such as county roadway expansion with additional travel lanes and full-phase intersection upgrades, including new signalization, additional turn lanes and pedestrian walkway accommodations.
Conclusion
As of September 2024, The Crossings has generated approximately 700 jobs, and the industrial projects alone have injected nearly $7 million into the Burlington and neighboring Westampton Township budgets. At the conclusion of all development and leasing activities, The Crossings is estimated to support nearly 1,400 new jobs and generate more than $5.4 million annually in property tax revenue for the local community, successfully turning a “dead mall" site into a vibrant economic hub.