Revitalization in Camden, NJ: City Scoop
City Grill
Matthew Bartner
Principal and Director of Operations
Kitchen & Associates
In Camden, there’s “a positive trend toward greater reinvestment and revitalization of existing neighborhoods and repurposing of buildings,” Bartner says. Such work includes neighborhood-scale master planning, targeted housing rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of existing assets like “transforming vacant office space into new uses,” he says.
Why? “A combination of policy, economics and pandemic impacts are all likely,” Bartner explains. “In the private market, capital remains at still favorable rates,” which, paired with subsidized funding for many programs, makes “reinvestment feasible and highly attractive to developers.” He adds that “investing in existing assets is a fundamentally sound approach in terms of environmental sustainability.”
But revitalization projects can have “more unknown variables,” Bartner cautions, “which may require additional due diligence time and expense.” When revamping a vacant building with “unfavorable zoning,” the project will need “a shared vision with local government,” he points out.
