On a rainy, miserable day today, I was doing some mindless "googling" and stumbled onto a blog post written just today by a Bellmawr resident about the closure of the Annunciation Church, and her unhappiness with Bishop Galante.
The writer "pulls no punches" in commenting about the Bishop and the future of the Annunciation Church.
One of her key points about the Annunciation School closure, is that with the impending projects in Bellmawr (she goes as far to call Bellmawr a "Boom Town") she says the Annunciation land is more valuable than other Churches and helped lead to its school closure.
I have to admit that I too looked at the Annunciation School building and large parking area out front and thought it would make a somewhat easy conversion to an office Building or Medical Office with plenty of parking. I never wrote that here before because I didn't want my thoughts to turn into rumors.
She then turns back to comment on Bishop Galante and the closing paragraph really puts out a powerful message. Read it all here:
http://www.savestmarys.net/2008/08/getting-at-the-heart-of-things.html
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Well, Bellmawr may not be a boom town yet, but with the addition of a speedline stop I can see how 8 acres of land would make a nice site for Town houses or condos for those wanting to leave the city.
I fully agree with the comment "Boom Town" or at least potential for it... Housing and Commercial development feed off of each other... when one comes in the other follows.
I was just surprised to see someone else in the town call us a potential "Boom Town" when most of the comments I hear are negative..
That land could also be grabbed by a Drug Store, or a Super Convenience store... lots of options. Lot of high density housing in the immediate area with Bellmawr Park across the street, Bellmawr Manor apartments next store, and the Browning Rd row homes means plenty of customers in walking distance!
There are a glut of drug stores here now. Drug stores, wawas, senior housing and apartments do not revitalize a town. I'd rather have the school. I guess if you never went there or never had kids go there senior housing, a drug store or another wawa feels like a boom-- its not.
Tim: you are misreading me and have the wires of my comments crossed. First, the "boom" refers to the planned development of the landfill (where initial evidence is very apparent) to include a Bass Pro Shops, 4 hotels, retail, movie theater and more... If Bass Pro were to open the 4 million visitors coming to that area of Bellmawr should cause an enconomic boom to the area... making every available piece of land more valuable as every other retailer and developer will want a piece of that 4 million person pie.
Regarding the Annunciation Property. I too prefer a school being there. I agree there are too many Drug stores and Wawa. I was just coorborating the original Blogger's comments that she thinks the Diocese chose to shut down Annunciation School because the property is more valuable to be redeveloped.
The point being, if you have 4 or 5 church properties in an area and need to reduce the numbers... they chose the one that potentially would be more economically attractive to developers. Actually... now that I wrote that.. not sure if the Bishop should be faulted.
So to tie this all together... Church feels the need to reduce properties. Town of Bellmawr could become a hot ticket. Developers will want a piece of that action. The Annunciation property could become attractive to developers.... developers who may want to build a wawa or drug store or condos etc.
Not saying I agree or want stores on that property, just saying maybe it plays out that way
But again... this is all speculation. I know nothing about the Annunciation property's intended use.
Post a Comment