Cherry Hill's Planning Board heard the amended site plan for a new Subaru dealership on Route 70 on Tuesday, Sept. 8. A proposed 7 Brew drive-thru coffee shop on Route 38 was pushed back to October.

The Subaru of Cherry Hill application would bring a 67,035-square-foot dealership to 2235 Route 70 West, a roughly 14-acre vacant site that once housed Subaru of America's corporate headquarters. The building would include a 21,840-square-foot showroom and a 36,350-square-foot service area, according to the board's meeting agenda.

The board's decision on the application has not yet been made public. Meeting minutes from the Sept. 8 session have not been posted.

Subaru first won Planning Board approval for the site in 2023, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The amended plan was required because of updated New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) flood hazard regulations adopted in July 2023, which imposed new riparian buffer requirements near the Cooper River, 70and73.com reported Aug. 31. The revised design shifts the building closer to Route 70 to comply.

The changes also reduced impervious surface coverage by about 20,000 square feet. The applicant estimated the redesign would cut project costs by roughly $2 million, according to 42Freeway. Stormwater basins were redesigned to meet the new NJDEP rules.

The dealership would relocate Subaru of Cherry Hill from its current location at 1800 Route 70 westbound to the eastbound side. The site sits between Porsche Cherry Hill and the railroad tracks near the Holiday Inn, directly across Route 70 from Garden State Pavilions and ShopRite.

The developer's application calls for about 80 employees and 658 parking spaces, with 454 reserved for vehicle inventory.

The property's former Subaru headquarters opened in 1986 and was demolished in 2019 after the company moved to its $118 million campus in Camden in 2018. Before that, the site was home to the Latin Casino, a 1,500-seat dinner club where Frank Sinatra and Aretha Franklin performed. It was demolished in the early 1980s.

In June, the board granted Subaru a second one-year extension of its original approvals, pushing the deadline to Aug. 8, 2027, according to approved minutes from the June 15 meeting. Planning Board Chair Sam Kates presided.

7 Brew hearing delayed to October

The 7 Brew application at 800 Route 38 was adjourned to the Monday, Oct. 5 Planning Board meeting. The drive-thru coffee chain, filed by applicant G7B II, LLC, proposes demolishing a former medical products store and building a 510-square-foot coffee shop with a 260-square-foot refrigerated storage cooler connected by a canopy and breezeway. The plan includes two drive-thru lanes plus a bypass lane and no customer seating.

The 7 Brew hearing had also been listed on the Aug. 18 agenda before being carried to Sept. 8. It has now been pushed back twice.

Residents can follow both applications at the board's next meeting on Oct. 5, conducted remotely via Zoom with a 7:30 p.m. start.