For decades, the property on Centennial Boulevard in Voorhees produced concrete.
Now it's going to produce housing.
The Voorhees Planning Board has approved The Oaks at Centennial, a roughly $50 million development consisting of 120 affordable apartments on the 6.6-acre former L&L Redi Mix site.
The project will be built in two 60-unit phases and include one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.
What interests me is the land-use story.
Decades ago, building housing in South Jersey often meant buying farmland or another large undeveloped parcel and creating a subdivision.
In established communities, those easy opportunities are disappearing.
So developers are increasingly looking at properties that already have another use.
Old offices. Former malls. Vacant industrial sites. Oversized parking lots. Empty banks.
That's why we're seeing projects like this.
Instead of allowing an obsolete concrete plant to remain vacant, the property is being reused for housing.
That doesn't mean every industrial site should become apartments.
Communities still need employment and commercial property.
But as South Jersey grows, we're going to have increasingly difficult conversations about how we use limited land.
For homeowners and buyers, that means paying attention to what's around a property.
A vacant industrial site may not remain vacant.
An old shopping center may eventually become housing.
An office park could have an entirely different use ten years from now.
Real estate isn't static.
Sometimes the most important question isn't:
"What is next door?"
It's:
"What could be next door someday?"
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