About Us What We Do Doing Business Life in Camden

Projects:
Central Waterfront

 
On-going
Waterfront Office Building

CFP is leading the development of a 36,000-sq. ft. , four-story Class-A office building on the Camden Waterfront, adjacent to the fountain plaza. Located among the waterfront’s many cultural destinations and a growing center of commerce, the building will feature a restaurant on the first floor that will serve residents, tourists and workers alike. The restaurant will also feature seasonal outdoor dining on the adjoining fountain plaza. The balance of the building will be occupied by several office tenants, including CFP. Featuring overlooking balconies and riverfront views, the building will have unique character that will help redefine Downtown Camden.

This project is essential to the promotion of commercial development in Camden, as it adds critical mass to the Downtown/Waterfront office market and helps spur further development in the City. The project will additionally create several jobs for Camden residents.

On-going
Waterfront Landscaping and Maintenance

Beginning in the fall of 2005, CFDA was approached by several of the property owners in the downtown waterfront about waterfront landscaping. After a series of stakeholder meetings with the various waterfront attractions and landowners, CFDA was tasked with preparing and coordinating a detailed plan to holistically improve the aesthetic quality and marketability of the downtown waterfront parcels. CFDA proposed leveraging the various resources already committed by the waterfront partners under one management plan to ensure the entire area looked like a well planned destination with a comprehensive and coordinated landscaping package for both new plantings and the corresponding maintenance of the plantings and green spaces.

Since that time, CFP has overseen this annual landscaping and maintenance program throughout the waterfront. CFP’s role has been to: solicit input and suggestions from the waterfront partners for new planting layouts; prepare contract documents, plans, and specifications for the landscape services as well as publicly advertise the work; select and contract for the supply of all professional, technical, and other services and all labor, materials, equipment, and supplies necessary to accomplish, perform, and carry out the conclusion of the landscape design, improvements, and maintenance; supervise the project work completed and ensure it meets regulatory standards; oversee the day-to-day management and oversight of the project in cooperation with the project participants and waterfront partners; and provide monthly progress reports to project participants and waterfront partners.

In 2012, CFP again successfully secured grant pledges and funds from Camden County Parks, Adventure Aquarium, Camden Parking Authority and New Jersey Economic Development Authority to continue the joint effort to design, implement and maintain a common landscaping plan for the Camden waterfront.

Over the past seven years, CFP has installed over a hundred new trees throughout the downtown waterfront as well as thirty varieties of new plant species including Black EyedSusans, Emerald Green Arborvitae, Gold Mop Cypress, Crape Myrtle Shrub, Sand Cherries, Stella Doro Daylilies,Greenspire Lindens, daylilies, grasses, and yarrows.
 

On-going
Introduction

Prior to 1984, the Camden Waterfront consisted of primarily heavy industrial production facilities owned by Campbell Soup Company, RCA, and a major rail yard and ferry system operated by the Pennsylvania Reading Railroad Company. By 1984, the railway infrastructure had been cleared away, and the production facilities were at the end of their useful lives with employment at only a small fraction of what it once had been. As a result of the heavy industry and transportation uses, the waterfront was cut off from public access for over 100 years.

In 1984, the three principal owners of the waterfront land-the City of Camden, Campbell Soup Company, and RCA-jointly commissioned a planning study by the American Cities Corporation to evaluate the development potential of their collective holdings. As a result of this cooperative effort, Cooper’s Ferry Development Association (CFDA) was founded as a private, nonprofit corporation dedicated to creating and implementing a vision for Camden’s downtown waterfront. The study determined that the waterfront could support a carefully planned, mixed-use development of family entertainment, recreational and cultural attractions, as well as office buildings, a hotel conference center, a residential community, restaurants, nightclubs, and retail.

Acting within this vision, the goals of CFDA over the past 25 years have been:

• To establish a new center of economic activity to help rebuild Camden’s depleted tax base.

• To create a significant number of jobs for City residents.

• To improve Camden’s image as a place within which to live, work, visit, and invest.

From its creation in 1984 until 2001, Cooper’s Ferry Development Association concentrated all of its organizational efforts on planning and implementing a high-quality, high-density redevelopment on Camden’s downtown waterfront. This narrowly focused approach has resulted in the creation of a critical mass of both public and private development projects that have established the conditions under which private investment can now flourish.

On-going
Waterfront Hotel

Consistent with the approved master plan for the downtown waterfront, CFDA continues to work with Camden Town Center (the development partnership between Vibrant Development and Steiner Associates) on the recruitment and marketing for a hotel project. To facilitate these efforts, CFDA has already installed the necessary public roadway and utility improvements to support a future hotel project. Furthermore, CFDA has participated in stakeholder interviews to quantify the hotel demand among the anchor institutions in the city, along with engaging a few professional service firms to study the proposed traffic impact and environmental remediation necessary to accommodate a future project.

On-going
Ulysses S. Wiggins Waterfront Park and Marina

The original Wiggins Park, built by the City of Camden in 1981, consisted of a 400 yard waterfront promenade, an elevated plaza, and a grass amphitheater that is used for free outdoor concerts.  Since its original development, CFDA has overseen the expansion of Wiggins Park in four additional phases, as follows:
•    Phase II: From the north end of the Aquarium to Market Street in 1990, at a cost of $3 million.
•    Phase III: From the south end of the marina to Clinton Street, completed in 1995 at a cost of $2.5 million.
•    Phase IV: From the Ben Franklin Bridge south to the RCA pier, completed in 2003, at a cost of $5 million.
•    Phase V: Around the perimeter of the RCA pier, completed in 2004, at a cost of $1 million.

CFDA has worked with the NJDEP Green Acres Program for twenty years in order to build the waterfront promenade along Wiggins Park. Built in different phases but in accordance with one consistent design standard, this beautiful linear park now extends for 1.3 miles from the Ben Franklin Bridge to the Battleship New Jersey. The approximate cost of this linear park through all of its phases is approximately $25 million, and involved securing funds via complex inter-agency agreements from the federal Urban Parks program, Delaware River Port Authority, Camden County, and the State of New Jersey’s Green Acres program. CFDA either directly managed the design and construction process for the various phases or arranged for others to perform the work in accordance with predetermined standards.

The State Green Acres Program regards Wiggins Park as one of its most successful endeavors in urban parks and regards CFDA as one of its most accomplished long-term development partners.

Spark Creative Group