Planning Board Recommends Dumping Rivercove's Age Restriction

The moribund Rivercove apartments got a potential lift Tuesday night, after the West Deptford Planning Board voted 6-1 in favor of recommending the township committee amend the 55-and-over tenant age restriction on the apartments.

The complex has been plagued with low occupancy, tax problems and rising insurance rates, and Thomas Hedenberg, managing member of Grove Street Realty Urban Renewal, LLC, which built the complex, said this is a necessary step.

“At this point, it’s survival for us,” Hedenberg said. “We need to have something happen with that property.”

According to Hedenberg, there are just 34 apartments rented out of the 199 apartments available at Rivercove, and he attributed the 55-and-over age restriction to part of the apartment complex’s current financial struggle, calling it a “very distressed industry.”

“All housing sectors are doing badly, but the age-restricted housing sector is doing far worse than any of the other sectors,” Hedenberg said.

Grove Street presently owes a total of $740,000 in back taxes on Rivercove from 2010 and 2011, Deputy Mayor Len Daws said after the meeting. Grove Street filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2010.

In the ensuing year, the complex has advertised lower rates rates–$1,150 for a one-bedroom and $1,525 for a two-bedroom apartment, versus $1,300 and $1,700 back in January 2010–and just days ago, a TV commercial targeting the gray-haired set was posted to Rivercove's Facebook page, all in an attempt to draw more tenants.

Another issue is the rate of Rivercove’s property insurance. When the complex first opened in 2009, the rate was about $70,000, Hedenberg said, but is now $140,000 because Rivercove is considered a higher-risk building due to its vacancy.

Every week, Hedenberg said he receives inquiries from five to six “financially qualified” people between the ages of 25 and 45 who are interested in leasing an apartment at Rivercove, but he has to turn them away because they do not meet the minimum age threshold.

The removal of the age restriction would only apply to Rivercove apartments; it would not affect any other parcel within the RiverWinds community, Daws clarified.

An adjacent lot, currently vacant, was under consideration for the age-restriction amendment.

Hedenberg said there are no current plans for that vacant lot, but Grove Street is “obligated to build something there.”

“If some use came in that I thought would work for us and would be attractive to the community, we can come in at that time and address that particular site at that time as opposed to now,” Hedenberg said.

“If the age restriction were not imposed upon that property, we probably could find an alternative use for the property,” he continued. “Whatever it would be…it would have to have a completely new site plan, site plan approval…it would start back at square one.”

Daws said the township committee will likely discuss the matter in closed session at the July 7 or July 14 meeting.

Once the committee reaches a decision, the matter will return to the planning board for further comment. At that point, other issues, such as parking needs–what planning board solicitor John Alice called a “touchstone issue”–can be discussed.

Rivercove currently has 265 parking spaces for residents: 115 spots in a surface lot and 150 additional spots in an underground garage, which cost $100 per month per space.

“One bedroom doesn’t mean one car,” planning board member John Bond, who cast the lone vote against the measure, countered, adding that without the age restriction, Rivercove has the potential to hold 300 to 350 residents, which could cause a parking shortage.

“That underground parking garage is absolutely a losing economic proposition, even at $100,” Hedenberg said. “We [built the garage] merely to accommodate the people coming in there, not because we wanted to make an additional profit.”

“If you have 150 parking spots and you have 199 apartments and you have no charge, then you’re going to have a debate with the tenants [as to who receives a space in the underground garage],” Hedenberg added.

Hedenberg also said that a cross-access easement provides an additional 70 parking spaces.

Planning board chair Scott Kintzing said parking is not an issue at this time, because Rivercove is not yet fully occupied.

Bond also expressed concern about a future influx of children to the school district if younger families are allowed to move in to Rivercove. Hedenberg said though Rivercove was not designed for young families or children, he couldn't guarantee that disbanding the age restriction would not bring more children to West Deptford’s schools.

Hedenberg added that Rivercove leasing officials have already disclosed the possibility of the disbanded age restriction to current residents, saying that most residents “would rather see people, they’d rather see activity as opposed to this huge, vacant building we’re dealing with.”

However, Hedenberg continued, if any current residents were opposed to opening the community to younger residents and they wanted to break their lease, “we wouldn’t keep them as a hostage.”

When Grove Street first received approval to construct the age-restricted apartments, “the market was in tremendous demand” as evidenced by the success of other similar complexes in the area, Hedenberg said.

“So at that point, we didn’t make a decision that was inappropriate,” he said.

Grove Street began construction of Rivercove at end of 2007.

“At that time, that was just when the national economy started its downward slide,” Hedenberg said, “but we had to start, we had a commitment to the financing.”

Construction was completed two years later and units became available for lease at the end of 2009.

“Unfortunately, when we got to the point of having a grand opening…the housing market was in depression,” Hedenberg said. “We, as everyone else in America, assumed this was going to be like all recessions: It would last a year or so and we’d move on and things would get better.

“Unfortunately, almost four years later, things have not gotten better.”