For those traveling through Upper township on the Garden State Parkway are used to the B.L. England. For some, it’s a landmark to know that they are almost at their destination, for others, it’s an environmental hazard.
The B.L. England Generating Station, also called Beesley’s Point Generating Station, opened in 1962 as a coal-fired power station.
It ran two units, one operated at 136.0 MW (Megawatts) and unit 2 operated at 163.2 MW.
The operation sat on 350 acres and was fully operational until June 2014 when its owners, RC Cape May Holdings LLC, shut down unit 1 so that it could be retrofitted to a natural gas turbine.
This change to natural gas was required under the federal Clean Air Act. The prior owners, Atlantic Electric (Pepco Holdings Co) didn’t make any upgrades in their tenure which prompted the change.
In order for the plant to be converted to natural gas, large pipes would have to be laid which lead many to not approve the project and so in 2019, those plans were dropped. In May 2019 Unit 2 was shut down which meant the full plant was off the grid since 1962.
This past week Upper Township Mayor Rich Palombo announced that The B.L. England plant had been purchased by “Beesleys Point Development LLC.”
The sale, which was four years in the making, will see the land turned into a marina with shops, restaurants, a hotel, and a boardwalk.
Beesleys Point Development LLC will pay to knock down the existing buildings, which is a price tag of $13+ million.
The price for the sale of the land was never announced but stay tuned as this will show up on the weekly property transfers website.
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