Saturday, April 28, 2007
By ALAN GUENTHER
Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN
A chaotic city historic preservation commission meeting ended early Friday
morning without a decision on Campbell Soup Co.'s request to tear down the
Sears Building on Admiral Wilson Boulevard to make way for a $72 million world
headquarters and office park. Commission member Kristine Seitz said the office
park Campbell wants to build is suitable for a suburb, not a city.
She said the Campbell headquarters should have
been taller, with more mixed-use development, that would have made the project
seem "more urban" and a better fit with the city.
Campbell wants permission to start construction
on its new world headquarters by July 16.
If that deadline is not met, the company may not only abandon its plans to
expand its headquarters, but it may also leave the city, Ed Sheehan,
Campbell's attorney said.
May 17, 2007 Camden
board OKs razing of Sears building
"Creating a business campus would
theoretically allow Campbell's to insulate itself from Camden's poverty and
blight. It's an understandable reaction for a company concerned with recruiting
corporate talent and not taking too many risks. But it's a short-sighted urban
design strategy with a limited upside. It sacrifices the urban form that is one
of Camden's chief remaining assets. Campbell's has the most to gain by
redesigning its proposal to embrace the urbanism of the site -- to reaffirm the
existing pattern of streets and blocks and to fill in gaps in the urban fabric.
If managed skillfully, this form of redevelopment would help stimulate a rebirth
of the surrounding neighborhood. The nearby restaurants and shops catering first
to Campbell's employees and secondly to others in the region would be a far
better recruiting tool than a walled-off campus."
Stephen J. Filmanowicz
CNU Communications Director
140 S. Dearborn St., Suite 310
Chicago, IL, 60603
United States
www.CNU.org
Something Even Worse Than a Cul-de-Sac Subdivision May
19 CNU
Seminar Focus on Business Parks
Campbells and Camden are making a common mistake
"Emphasis on automotive convenience at the
expense of
"Place."
Ever since shopping
malls and commercial strips stole away the largest share of shopping investment
from downtowns, cities have made the common mistake of assuming that downtown
should compete with these facilities by providing more convenient parking, wider
roads with plenty of capacity, and by placing
parking next to anchors. This is a mistake. Downtown cannot
compete with the convenience of mini-malls, strip centers, power
centers and shopping malls surrounded by surface lots and positioned along wide
arterial streets. To be successful, downtown must be the lively alternative
to the strip, offering great places to walk, sit, and to hang out.
The best downtowns
offer street life, vitality, urbanism, romance, beauty, and
the magic of the city. Uses that do better in such vital environments-- such as
restaurants -- choose downtown every time." -Michael Freedman of Freedman,
Tung, & Bottomley
Strategiceconomics.com
Camden needs to take out an insurance policy,
and a mixed use campus is that policy.
By
Michael McAteer
Campbells Soup has been a great corporate
citizen in Camden for over 134 years. However, its proposed new world
headquarters business campus, consisting only of Class A business suites and
huge parking lots is a design progressive communities across America have been
rejecting for several years now, and for good reason.
Campbells commitment to building a new world
headquarters is a strong vote of confidence in Camdens future, and it would be
tragic on many levels if it were to leave the city. However, in this era of
merger and acquisitions mania Campbells management could find it has no choice
in the matter, if shareholders receive an offer they cannot refuse.
Campbells plan is single use. All the buildings are expected to be occupied by
Campbells and its suppliers. If Campbells were to be merged or acquired by
another company with headquarters in another country, Camden will find itself
with an abandoned complex up for sale, or rented to an entirely different
clientele which could only be attracted at a discount. Renting out or selling
this single use space would be a major and difficult challenge.
If the dollar continues to devalue at the
current rate, an acquisition of Campbells is an almost certain eventuality in
the coming years, as foreign companies pick up irresistable brands such as
Campbells for chump change. This has already happened to American companies as
large as Campbells at an accelerating rate. A mixed use development would be an
insurance policy against the city suddenly finding itself with a empty massive
business campus for sale in a city known far and wide for it's inability to
attract businesses. Campbells can increase the value of its new campus
immediately with a New Urbanist, "Placemaking" design that would
certainly attract many more businesses close to it that are not dependent upon
Campbells presence in the city to thrive. A well built mixed use sustainable
complex can survive well beyond Campbells exit from the city. Remember, just two
weeks ago they threatened to quit the city for good. What is to say two years
from now, another issue may irritate Campbells from making the same threat, and
this time following through with it. Campbells has already stated it can and
will leave the city at the drop of a hat, and publicly stated at two public
meetings that its first obligation is to its shareholders and not the city.
Under those conditions, Camden needs to take out an insurance policy, and a
mixed use campus is that policy.
-Michael McAteer
