A townhome development is coming to the longtime home of a local newspaper in a community that has built little housing in recent years.
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A developer's plan to build 129 units on the former site of the Burlington County Times newsroom along Route 130 in Willingboro Township secured approval Tuesday, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The 12-acre project was proposed by Willingboro Townhomes AMC Dev LLC, an entity connected to Michael Mitnick and Fort Lee, New Jersey-based AMS Development. The developer is being represented by attorney Damien Del Duca.
Plans call for 18 three-story buildings and two two-story buildings. The project would include seven townhouses for low- and moderate-income families.
The site was home to the Burlington County Times for 50 years. The newspaper was acquired in 2017 by New Media Investment Group, and in 2018, it moved its office to Westampton.
The building at 4284 Route 130 in Willingboro, New Jersey, was demolished in 2020. It sits about 12 miles from Philadelphia.
Willingboro, with an estimated population of around 33,000, has experienced rising home prices in recent years as little new housing has been built.
The median sale price for homes in Willingboro Township last month was $353K, up from $250K five years earlier, according to Zillow. From the start of 2021 to the start of this year, the town has issued permits for 49 new housing units, according to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs' database.
"There is a growing need to promote a more diverse housing inventory that includes options for low- and moderate-income households, seniors, and those with special housing needs," officials wrote in Willingboro's Housing Element and Fair Share plan, adopted last year. The plan identified the Burlington County Times site redevelopment as the largest project planned to address that need.
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