By EDWARD COLIMORE   
Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsyvlania)

Expecting less state money for its scaled-down redevelopment of the former Pennsauken Mart site, Camden County has come up with another project for funding: an $11.5 million state-of-the-art regional fire training academy.

The proposed 36,000-square-foot building is slated for the fire training site on the Camden County government campus of offices and facilities known as Lakeland in Gloucester Township.

Thomas Carver, executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, said the county submitted a revamped application for the Pennsauken site, where there are plans for 700 townhouses and condominiums, a hotel, conference center and shops.

That project on 35 acres was announced in February, and it followed earlier, more ambitious plans for a civic and convention center on 70 acres. The authority had earmarked $24 million for the site - at Routes 73 and 130 - but is expected to approve a reduced grant at its meeting next month.

Carver said a second grant application, for the fire academy, would be considered at the same meeting, and the authority's action could be taken on it as soon as its July meeting.

"We're in the process of negotiations," said Carver. "We're working with them [the county] in good faith."

Jeffrey Swartz, executive director of the Camden County Redevelopment Authority, which owns the mart site, said nine of the 13 buildings on the property have been demolished.

Swartz said workers must remove asbestos and utility meters from the main mart building before it can be razed, possibly by the fall.

In about a month, he said, the county expects to sign a redevelopment agreement for the project, dubbed the Crossroads Redevelopment Area by the county and Pennsauken Park by the prospective developer, Atlanta-based Beazer Homes.

Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said, "The scope of the project changed drastically, so CRDA is acting reasonable by looking at the grant."

"But there will still be no cost to the taxpayers," he said. "With the grant we receive, we can still develop the project without costing them a dime."

At the same time, Cappelli said, the fire academy project would benefit not only the county but the whole region.

"We need more emergency personnel," he said. "It's a homeland security issue."

Paul Hartstein, the county's chief fire marshal, said 10,000 firefighters and emergency medical service personnel from departments in South Jersey, Philadelphia and its suburbs are trained each year at the Lakeland site.

That number could double if the new training facility is constructed, as anticipated, within the next two years. The building would include classrooms, a lecture hall, practical training room, and cafeteria. It would be located near the burn building, where firefighters learn to extinguish blazes.

Hartstein said the county originally expected the building would cost about $7 million - until the cost of building materials skyrocketed because of Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters.

"We've been maxed out on space," said Hartstein. "We can't run the amount of classes we need to run on homeland security, weapons of mass destruction, and hazardous material. A lot of people want to take courses, and we don't have room."