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Construction begins at the future site of the Gloucester Township Premium Outlets between Rt 168, College Drive and Davistown Road, Monday, June 23, 2014. (Staff Photo by Tim Hawk/South Jersey Times)

Construction has begun on the new Gloucester Township Premium Outlets.

Crews are currently working to level the 65-acre expanse of land between the Black Horse Pike and Route 42 near Cooper and Zimmerman roads, where the outlets are set to open next summer.

Backhoes and bulldozers have been at work at the property — previously vacant farmland — for the past week or so, clearing trees and making way for what will eventually become 415,000 square feet of high-end retail space and 35,000 square feet of commercial space.

Approved last summer, the shopping center is a joint venture between PREIT-Rubin, Inc., the corporation behind the Cherry Hill Mall and Voorhees Town Center, and Simon Property Group, the largest developer of malls and shopping centers in the country, including the Jersey Shore Premium Outlets and Philadelphia Premium Outlets.

The outlets are expected to create about 800 full- and part-time permanent jobs at the site, as well as 250 temporary construction jobs.

“[The start of construction] is the start of a very bright future for Gloucester Township,” said Mayor David Mayer. “It puts us on the map as a community. People will be coming into our community to spend their money here, which will help other business in the town grow.”

The area was declared a redevelopment zone in 2008 and was later amended in 2011, according to site plan paperwork. The land is owned by Cooper Health System’s subsidiary, Gloucester 42 Associates, LLC.

Two area residents, sisters Pauline Raabe and Mary Matulewicz, spoke out against the start of construction at Monday night’s council meeting, stating they saw parts of animals killed by construction equipment at the site and are concerned an old cemetery could’ve been unearthed at the site during excavation.

“The carnage was so upsetting,” said Matulewicz, who said she saw carcasses of a fawn and ground hog on the property Sunday night.

“There are so many unanswered questions,” said Raabe, who also brought the issue to a Facebook page focused on Blackwood for discussion. “I believe this is a big deal.”

Officials said Tuesday there was no indication a cemetery or any burial grounds were found on site.

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Bob Considine said the land use permits for the project require any discovery of bones be reported to the agency’s Division of Land Use to try and understand what was found and go from there.

He said no discoveries at the outlet construction site have been reported to the NJDEP. An archeological survey of the project, completed before permits were issued, found some deer bones on the land, but no other issues.

Considine said any discovery of remains would also need to be reported to police for the state police’s anthropologist to investigate and rule out any connection to a crime.

Capt. Jeff Wiser of the Gloucester Township Police Department said he was unaware of any reports regarding a burial site on the property.

Director of Community Development and Planning Ken Lechner, who has worked for the township for 11 years, said he also hadn’t heard of any remains being found there.

Developers did report the discovery of trash and waste found on wetlands at the site — which have already been surveyed and delineated through the permit process — to the DEP, which required the developers to clean up and remediate the waste.

“That’s the only major restoration work that’s taking place,” said Lechner, adding the developers went through extensive approvals, permits and surveys over the past two years to start building.

In addition to getting approvals from the historic preservation program, as well as Camden County’s planning board and soil conservation district, Lechner said developers had the national Heritage Preservation out to the site to determine if any endangered species lived there, but none were found.

“I think they covered all their bases,” he said.

Developers are required to notify the DEP’s land use department if any threatened or endangered species were killed during the work, Considine said, adding the Land Use and Historic Preservation Office are planning a visit to the site.

While some people may not like to see the acres and acres of land turned into commercial development, the land — located in a redevelopment zone — was legally acquired, private property that developers have the right to build on, Lechner said.

“They have every right to develop as long as they follow the town’s rules,” said Lechner.

Ashlyn Delson, a spokeswoman for PREIT, said the company was not aware of any issues with animals or burial grounds at the site.

Attempts to reach Holt Construction, the general contractor handling the site, on

Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Mayor Mayer said he hadn’t heard anything about any construction issues and was excited to see the project move forward.

“This will have a ripple effect in our community,” he said. “A positive ripple effect.”

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Contact staff writer Michelle Caffrey at 856-686-3686 or mcaffrey@southjerseymedia.com