State and local officials gathered last week to celebrate the successful completion of Cooper’s Poynt Waterfront Park, a five-acre green space on the Delaware River just north of the Ben Franklin Bridge.
It’s a high-point for the years-long effort to put to use the former Riverfront State Prison site, bare since the prison was demolished starting in 2009, but not a slam dunk. That’s because the question of what will happen to the remaining nearly nine acres of the property is still unanswered.
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority calls it the most valuable real estate in North Camden, but its efforts to get developers interested in submitting proposals for the site came up with nothing.
The big issue is that the site is competing with properties on the central waterfront area south of the bridge, including a site being developed and marketed by Liberty Property Trust. Brandywine Realty Trust is also luring companies to its development in the Knights Crossing area.