City advances $2.7M UEZ grant to demolish Vineland Developmental Center West Campus

Vineland city council members voted on Feb. 10 to submit a grant application to the New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zone Authority asking officials to release $2.7 million from the city’s UEZ account to pay for demolition and some site infrastructure at the former Vineland Developmental Center West Campus. The campus fronts what reports variously call Almond Orchard Road and more specifically Almond Road and North Orchard Road.

City economic development director Sandy Forosisky said the site “is currently being engineered by CME” and that “we expect the first phase of demolition to go out to bid in March or April.” Forosisky’s remarks were reported Feb. 11 as officials moved the UEZ grant request forward, making the financing step the immediate action to clear the long-vacant West Campus.

The $2.7 million request is intended to add to a funding pot Vineland has assembled from multiple sources. In 2023 the U.S. Economic Development Administration approved a $3 million grant for water and sewer infrastructure at the site, which the city matched. Approximately a year ago city council members successfully asked state authority officials for $590,450 to cover engineering infrastructure such as future roads, water service and sewer service.

The West Campus contains 17 buildings and a small cemetery for patients, records show, and the state closed the campus in 2013 while the Vineland Developmental Center’s East Campus remains in operation. State land acquisition for the West Campus dates back to the 1920s. City planning envisions converting the property into a roughly 60-acre industrial park that could yield six to nine individual lots to address a longtime shortage of developable land in Vineland.

Engineering firm CME is handling site work now; Vineland officials say the first demolition phase will be publicly bid in the March-April window Forosisky cited. The city’s application asks UEZ Authority officials to release the funds from the local UEZ account, and the $2.7 million would be applied to demolition and “some construction of infrastructure at the site,” according to city materials.

Key unresolved items remain in the public record. The application and public comments do not yet itemize exactly how the $2.7 million would be split between demolition and specific infrastructure elements, they do not define the scope of the “first phase” beyond the planned bid window, and they do not state how the small cemetery for patients will be handled during demolition and redevelopment.

Vineland officials say the next concrete milestone is the March or April bid process, after which demolition contracts and a clearer schedule should follow. CME, the New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zone Authority and city economic development staff will be the primary parties overseeing the transition from the 17-building West Campus to the proposed industrial park.