Courier Post

MANTUA — A nearly 23-acre parcel of unused land here will soon be developed into a regional attraction for athletes of all ages.
Township officials are excited about what an indoor-outdoor sports complex will bring to the region.

Total Turf Experience's development, expected to open early next year, will host adult and youth soccer, baseball, lacrosse and field hockey leagues, drawing players from South Jersey and Philadelphia, according to co-owner Jerry McGough. The site, featuring a 75,000-square-foot indoor turf facility and outdoor fields off Lambs Road, will also feature professionally run sports programs, McGough said.
They include soccer clubs and clinics run by players and coaches from the Philadelphia KiXX. There is much demand and about 200 children are already signed up, said Don D'Ambra, KiXX head coach. Mantua is perfect, because most facilities are in Central and North Jersey, he said.

"This is an ideal spot. We will try to draw regionally, not just from Gloucester County. We want to develop a community," he said.
Soccer leagues will be for all ages, and training will cater to high school aged players, trying to earn college scholarships, D'Ambra said.
Other professionally coached programs will be for baseball, run by two-time College World Series player and former major leaguer Michael Koerner and likely for football, where negotiations are under way with former NFL players, McGough said.

The complex, which will feature facilities for senior citizens, an academic venue run by Ivy League School professionals and broadcasting schools, is the perfect use for the land, said Mayor Tim Chell.

The facility will bring a lot of money as a rateable and as an attraction that will help eateries and businesses as people come off Route 55, Chell said. "We're very excited and think it's going to be a great opportunity," he said. This month Total Turf Experience, owned and run, in part, by three Washington Township families with children involved in sports, earned a conditional permit to proceed with development from the state Department of Environmental Protection, McGough said. Total Turf Experience owners must fund testing for rare birds, flowers, certain types of soils and Native American artifacts, he said. The artifact process, now under way, will have cost Total Turf Experience an estimated four months and more than $100,000, McGough said. So far, 210 "nonsignificant, nonmuseum-quality artifacts," most no larger than a quarter, have been discovered, he said. "We respect this process and want to educate the children in our programs on these findings.

. . . Our groundbreaking process will begin shortly after testing is done," he said. An operations building will be constructed in phase one of development, including a speed and agility school, a venue for a physical therapist and full-time sports medic, sporting goods store, cafe and offices, McGough said. That building will also include a tri-field arena, he said. Total Turf Experience plans cleared final township approvals on May 20, according to Michelle Bruner, Mantua's economic development coordinator.

"This redevelopment project is a model of how local, county, state and federal agencies can work together for the betterment of our community," Bruner wrote in an e-mail. There is room for accompanying development in front of the site, at the discretion of land owners, Lambs Road Associates. Total Turf Experience purchased 22.97 of 38 acres at that location from Lambs Road Associates for $1.5 million in July, Bruner said. There are no plans for Lambs Road's 15 acres in the front of that site, according to the group's attorney Louis Giasante.
"Total Turf Experience is a great development and fabulous idea. We liked it from the start," Giasante said. "We're waiting to see what happens."