After years of false starts, the finish line is finally in sight for one of the longest-running redevelopment projects in Merchantville.
Last week, the borough land use board approved a proposal from 13th Street Kitchens to turn the historic First National Bank and Trust Company of Merchantville into a second location of its Mexicali fusion eatery, La Chinesca.
13th Street Kitchens is owned by Michael and Jeniphur Pasquarello of Haddonfield. The couple hopes to reopen the shuttered property, which last operated in 2007 as a PNC Bank, in spring 2025.
In addition to La Chinesca, 13th Street Kitchens operates the brunch restaurants Café Lift in Haddonfield and Philadelphia, and the gastropub Prohibition Taproom in Philadelphia.
Since opening the Haddonfield Café Lift location in 2022, the Pasquarellos also bought historic Boxwood Hall in Haddonfield, which they plan to revive as a bed and breakfast. Most recently, they signed a lease for the shuttered Susquehanna Bank at 110 Kings Highway East, which they also plan to transform into a fifth, different restaurant concept sometime in 2025.
“I have a few things in mind,” Michael Pasquarello said. “We’re in the architectural phases and planning phases. It’s a very sound property; should be a little quicker [to complete].”
Banks are notoriously difficult to redevelop, and historic properties even more so. However, Michael Pasquarello said, those are precisely the challenges that yield the results he finds to be so worthwhile.
“If I could go back to my high school years, I probably would be into history or storytelling,” he said. “From a businessperson’s perspective, I understand why these are unfavorable, but it’s what moves my needle a little bit.”
Older spaces are infused with experiences that may be reflected back for guests to enjoy in ways that strip mall pad sites don’t offer, Michael Pasquarello said.
Tapping into that history offers a chance to deliver distinct experiences.
“[We] enjoy history and revitalization,” he said. “We love adaptive reuse. Boxwood Hall, this bank; it’s so exciting to learn about.
“When something has based its roots for hundreds of years in a location, and people have passed through it, the fact that it’s been a part of the community, and has breathed life, and been through so many generations, is moving to us.”
It’s also a tremendous amount of work. 13th Street Kitchens has been the conditional redeveloper for the Merchantville bank since 2022.
Before it had even taken possession of the property, the group needed authorization to secure its roof to prevent further water intrusion into the bank. Next, it overhauled joists, floorboards, and rafters.
In the intervening months, a vision for the space further took root. As a restaurant, the property will feature an ADA-accessible, multi-level deck with “an oasis” of native plantings designed by Sikora Wells Appel of Haddonfield, Michael Pasquarello said.
That outdoor space will be constructed with a brick façade and a drainable, imitation-wood decking over concrete piers in a way that is intended to preserve the building exterior while adding to it.
In concert with a menu that fuses Northern Mexican cuisine with an infusion of Chinese flavors from the Baja region, La Chinesca Merchantville aims to offer an experience that Michael Pasquarello believes is “slightly untapped” in South Jersey.
“The path of least resistance for us would have been to take Prohibition Taproom or Kensington Quarters [and make something] Americana,” he said.
“But it seems like that’s already established in a really great place across the street. I didn’t want to create two monstrosities across the street from each other, feeding the same customer.
“I enjoy Mexican food and culture in a hospitality environment,” Michael Pasquarello said. “They’re so much fun to go to and so much fun to run. When I’ve seen the opportunity to do one closer to us, it was a win-win for us.”
In addition to offering a dining option to complement neighboring hospitality businesses like Park Place, Omega’s, Blue Monkey Tavern, Eclipse Brewing, and The Station Café, La Chinesca can function as an anchor point in the Merchantville downtown, Mayor Ted Brennan said.
Since the borough acquired the bank nearly 20 years ago, finding an adaptive reuse for the surrounding property has stymied the municipal government. Plans have been drawn up and redrawn. Various iterations included housing, mixed-use spaces, and finally, a walking piazza that will connect to the nearby multi-use path that runs through the area.
What 13th Street Kitchens offered for the bank site represents “a disciplined vision for what to do with the building because of how central it is for our downtown business district,” Brennan said.
https://www.njpen.com/merchantville-debuts-downtown-redevelopment-concepts/“We have talked about so many different iterations of this redevelopment,” the mayor said, while praising “the patience of residents in town [who] bought into the global vision of what we’re trying to do.
“They allowed us the grace to get it done the right way,” Brennan said. “Ultimately, we’re just being stewards of the community that will be long-lasting after us. It’s been pretty interesting to see the emergence.”
The various revisions of redevelopment plans for the site have changed as market conditions shifted, the mayor said. The difficulty that brick-and-mortar small businesses have experienced in maintaining storefronts led planners to shift focus away from mixed-use commercial residential “for the simple fact that parking would be difficult,” Brennan said.
Indeed, La Chinesca will be reliant upon walk-up business as well as offsite parking, which Michael Pasquarello said is comparable to operating conditions at his other restaurants.
Real estate that could have been given over to meeting minimum parking standards will instead provide for the deck that is to be a signature point of interest, but with a seating capacity of 400 at the bank, supplemental measures must be employed as well.
To that end, the borough government is focusing on creating “a more global parking concept” for Merchantville, Brennan said, which will include improvements to the Verizon lot that it leases, and additional street parking created by the Camden County widening of East Park Avenue.
The mayor also highlighted the pedestrian walkway that will bisect the triangle created by East Park and East Chestnut Avenues and South Centre Street; that project, too, is expected to come online in 2025.
“When you look at everything that’s happening here, and the eastern side of this space having more passive recreation and a gathering space for live entertainment and other restaurants, the plan seems to have come together, at times despite ourselves,” Brennan said.
“The people I’ve worked with through this have been open to changing those visions in keeping with the facts and circumstances on the ground,” he said. “I’m very excited.”
For the Pasquarellos, the challenge remains to cultivate a distinct experience that will draw shoppers and diners to the heart of Merchantville from throughout the region.
If La Chinesca can fill that niche, it has the potential to further activate the sites nearby.
“I think this is a great location as it relates not only to Merchantville, but the surrounding area as a way to introduce people to Merchantville,” Michael Pasquarello said.
“This concept in particular I believe is interesting; it touches a bunch of people in different ways.
“When you go to those [North Jersey] suburbs of New York, the food is so good,” he continued. “I think that people want their options here to be just as adventurous, just as enjoyable, as going over the bridge [into Philadelphia].”
