Cherry Hill plans new hotels, a restaurant and a café on Route 70

An overgrown piece of land that once housed a gas station, a miniature golf course and a life-sized dinosaur statue is slated for redevelopment along Route 70 on the west side of Cherry Hill.

The plans, which the township approved on July 18, call for the construction of two five-story hotels with a total of 251 rooms, a stand-alone restaurant and a drive-thru cafe on the west side of Route 70 between Union Avenue and the Executive Campus office park near Cuthbert Boulevard.

The Magic Touch car wash, which has operated on its own part of the property since the 1960s, is to be remodeled and the owners will also build the adjacent cafe in parallel with the hotel project, said property manager David Lee.

“This is a significant upgrade to an important site at the gateway to Cherry Hill,” said Kathy Cullen, community development director.

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Cullen pointed to the 12-acre property’s proximity to Cooper River Park, which regularly attracts thousands of visitors to rowing competitions and other events, and said hotels with a total of 251 guest rooms would be “a great reuse of an excellent site.” The extended-stay Residence Inn proposed for the site will have 131 guest rooms, while the Hampton Inn & Suites will have 120, according to documents filed with the municipality.

No real “Golden Triangle”

The redevelopment area east of Cuthbert Boulevard is part of a much larger area that Cherry Hill planners and promoters long ago called the Golden Triangle. The name has stuck in real estate circles, but it seems out of sync with the abandoned area along Route 70.

Most of the land has been vacant for decades and is blighted by illegal dumping of construction waste and debris. This includes an unnamed tributary of the Cooper River that is obscured by scrubby stands of trees and invasive vegetation.

These and other suboptimal conditions were mentioned in the municipality’s 2004 master plan, when the municipality was listed as an area in need of redevelopment.

Despite its prominent location, the site has presented problems for potential developers; it took KM Hotels four years to get its Cherry Hill proposal approved by the municipality and the state Environmental Protection Agency.

KM did not respond to voicemails or an email to its headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. But community officials said a number of changes to the company’s original plan, as well as some flexibility on the part of the DEP, were key to the project’s recent approval.

Reconciling ecological and economic realities

A DEP spokesman said the agency granted the developer an exemption from the new requirement not to disturb or build within a 300-foot-wide riparian zone along the unnamed tributary of the property.

Like the Cooper River itself, the tributary is classified as a Category 1 waterway due to its “exceptional” ecological, aesthetic or recreational significance.

By granting the exemption, “a viable commercial project has been created that complies with local zoning regulations while allowing for the enhancement and restoration of large portions of the riparian zones that have been disturbed in the past,” the spokesman said, noting that the municipality approved the project shortly before the Cooper and its tributaries were upgraded to Category One.

The developer also proposes removing debris and restoring native vegetation within the zones, as well as restricting development to 2.7 acres of the property by deed, the spokesman said.

Washing, waxing and a cup of coffee

David Lee has worked at Magic Touch Car Wash for 13 years. He said the remodel will be “more than just a facelift.” Improvements also include a safer entrance and exit from Route 70 and an area where customers can line up in their cars while waiting for service, he said.

“It will be positive to see the cleanup in this area and (the project) will be good for the community,” he said.

The cafe will have indoor seating and a drive-thru and will be located west of the car wash. It is being developed by Route70 West LLC.

Route 70 is used by 85,000 vehicles a day and is being completely rehabilitated along its entire length through the municipality at a cost of $135 million. The work on the highway According to the New Jersey Department of Transportation, the project is scheduled to be completed in early 2026.

Cullen, the community’s development director, said new hotels and a restaurant reflect Route 70 and the west side’s mid-century rise as a premier hospitality, entertainment, shopping and restaurant district in the region.

“A welcoming face”

The central buildings of this district – the Latin Casino, the Rickshaw Inn and the Thoroughbred Racetrack in Garden State Park – are all gone. The only visible remnant of this historic era is the racetrack gatehouse, a quarter mile east of the new hotel site.

Longtime Westside resident Dan Cirucci has collected 1,400 signatures on a petition to save the building and sees its preservation as a complement to the new hotel development to the west.

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“This area has been an eyesore for far too long and now it seems to be thriving, which is great,” he said.

The new hotels and a renovated gatehouse “will add a welcoming face to the community,” Cirucci said. “They will be a small reminder of a time when Cherry Hill was a center of hospitality and entertainment.”