January 14, 2025
Provided image/Gilbane
A rendering shows early plans for the Beacon Building, a 25-story office tower proposed as part of the $250 million renovation of the Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden.
A 25-story office tower could be built in Camden as part of a $250 million overhaul of the city's Walter Rand Transportation Center in the coming years, county officials said Tuesday.
Preliminary plans refer to the project as the Beacon Building. The high-rise, which would become the city's tallest building, would be located on public parcels between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Federal Street, next to the transportation center on on South Broadway Boulevard, and would serve a mix of public and private tenants, officials said.
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“The Beacon Building will be (a) signal to the region that Camden is not only a city of promise on the rise, but it is also the place to be (to) do business and the center of the Eds and Meds universe for the state of New Jersey,” County Commissioner Jeffrey Nash said in a statement.
Camden County officials, who postponed a news conference set for Tuesday due to scheduling conflicts, said the Beacon Building is viewed as a complement to the work being planned at the transportation center.
In 2021, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) awarded NJ Transit $250 million to modernize Walter Rand Transportation Center, which was built in 1989 and serves as a critical connection point to the rest of the state and Philadelphia. NJ Transit service at the station includes 24 bus lines, the River LINE light rail, the PATCO Speedline and a shuttle.
The office tower concept emerged out of the master planning process for the transportation center, which officials said is now 30% through the design phase. Gilbane, the developer for the overhaul, also would oversee the construction of the Beacon Building, which would have about 500,000 square feet of office space.
Potential tenants could include Cooper University Health Care, whose leaders were among the officials expected to attend the news conference that was delayed. Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen told the Courier-Post the project lines up with the health system's upcoming $3 billion expansion of its nearby campus. New Jersey's Administrative Office of the Courts also could be relocated to the office tower.
The Beacon Building development would also feature a new public square and parking facility, county officials said.
Camden's current tallest building is City Hall, whose central tower stands 18 stories above Market Street.
County officials did not provide cost estimates or a timeline for the Beacon project. The Walter Rand Transportation Center project is in the preliminary engineering phase and will not begin construction for at least another two years. NJ Transit shared renderings of plans for the transportation center in the fall.
The county is expected to reschedule its news conference on the Beacon project for the first week of February, spokesperson Dan Keashen said.
Camden County Commissioner Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said in a statement Tuesday that the Beacon Building would be a "generational investment" in the city's future. And despite a challenging economic climate for office space, he told ROI-NJ that the building would fill an important role in Camden's economy.
“From coast to coast, there is an issue with finding good, quality office spaces that checks all the boxes for businesses,” he said. “The Beacon Building will serve as a top-of-the-line facility offering everything that business owners and employees could want in a workspace including access to a major transportation hub and a beautiful greenspace adjacent to the building."
Disclosure: George E. Norcross III, is the chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Cooper Health System. He is the father of PhillyVoice Founder and Chairwoman Lexie Norcross.
