The special meeting is being requested for Nov. 25 at 5 p.m., though the time and date have to be confirmed.
by Amy Batista, Special Writer
FLORENCE — A special meeting is being requested to work on the plan for Destination Maternity, which plans to relocate its distribution center to Florence.
The special meeting is being requested for Nov. 25 at 5 p.m., though the time and date have to be confirmed.
”Destination Maternity is a well established business out of Philadelphia announced that they are coming to Florence Township and they will be going into the (Whitesell) property,” said Mayor Craig Wilkie. “Fortunately for our community we’ve had a number of projects going on.”
Destination Maternity Corp., a maternity apparel retailer, announced its plans to relocate its corporate headquarters and distribution center from Philadelphia to southern New Jersey on Sept. 12, as previously reported in The Register News.
According to Mayor Wilkie, it will relocate its distribution center to Florence and its headquarters to Moorestown.
Destination Maternity operates 1,893 retail locations, including 606 stores, predominantly under the tradenames Motherhood Maternity, A Pea in the Pod and Destination Maternity.
It also has and 1,287 leased department locations, and sells on the web through its DestinationMaternity.com and other brand-specific websites. Destination Maternity also distributes its collection through a licensed arrangement at Kohl’s stores throughout the United States and on Kohls.com.
The new distribution, warehouse and logistics building will be located in the Haines Center along the Route 130 Corridor at the 37-acre site.
Mayor Wilkie said the center will be a 400,000 square-foot facility with an expansion up to 500,000 square feet.
This new business will be creating 250 full time jobs to start and up to a total of 280 full time jobs in the near future, Mayor Wilkie said.
As part of the redevelopment plan a plan has to be developed and go before the Planning Board in December, he added. The company’s corporate office operations, which are currently split between its headquarters at North 5th Street in Philadelphia and its offices in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, will move 12 miles from the its 5th Street headquarters facility to a completely renovated 74,000 square-foot office building in Moorestown.
The company expects this move to occur in the Fall of 2014, according to the press release.
The company’s distribution operations, which are similarly split between two Philadelphia locations, will move approximately 23 to Florence Township. The company expects this move to occur in early 2015, according to the press release.
Mayor Wilkie thanked the staff and professionals who have been working on this project “in order to make this all happen.”
”We do what we have to do to get things done because one of the things I said we would be is business friendly,” Mayor Wilkie said. “We are not comprising anything into the town. We agree that we want you here and you want to come here we are going to get you in the door as quick as we can.”

