The Camden Waterfront, also known as the Central Waterfront, is a commercial and entertainment district in

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 20 ...

, on the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, before ...

south of the

Ben Franklin Bridge The Benjamin Franklin Bridge, originally named the Delaware River Bridge and known locally as the Ben Franklin Bridge, is a suspension bridge across the Delaware River connecting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey. Owned and ope ...

and north of

Port of Camden The Port of Camden is situated on east bank of the Delaware River in Camden and Gloucester City in southern New Jersey. It is one of several ports in the Delaware Valley metro area port complex and is located near the mouth of Newtown Creek opp ...

. The district is characterized by its visitor attractions and its location offering views of the river and the

Philadelphia skyline Philadelphia, the largest city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, is home to more than 300 completed high-rise buildings up to , and 58 completed skyscrapers of or taller,

. It is served by RiverLink Ferry which crosses the river to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

and the Cooper St-Rutgers,

Aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

, and

Entertainment Center An entertainment center (or centre), also known as an entertainment complex, is a piece of furniture designed to house consumer electronic appliances and components, such as televisions. Evolution of home TV and stereo A stereo console (or "con ...

stations of the River Line light rail system. According to the

2000 U.S. census The United States census of 2000, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 cen ...

, the neighborhood has a population of 962.

Attractions

The

Adventure Aquarium The Adventure Aquarium, formerly the Thomas H. Kean New Jersey State Aquarium, is a for-profit educational entertainment attraction operated in Camden, New Jersey on the Delaware River Camden Waterfront by Herschend Family Entertainment. Origin ...

originally opened in 1992 as the New Jersey State Aquarium at Camden. In 2005, after extensive renovation, the aquarium was reopened under the name Adventure Aquarium. The aquarium was one of the original centerpieces in Camden's plans for revitalizing their city. The

Freedom Mortgage Pavilion The Freedom Mortgage Pavilion is an outdoor amphitheatre and indoor theater complex in Camden, New Jersey located in the Camden Waterfront entertainment district on the Delaware River across from Philadelphia. Since it opened in June 1995, t ...

, formerly known as the BB&T Pavilion, Susquehanna Bank Center, and Tweeter Center, is a 25,000-seat open-air concert amphitheater that was opened in 1995 and renamed after a 2008 deal in which the bank would pay $10 million over 15 years for naming rights. USS New Jersey Night

The was a U.S. Navy battleship that was intermittently active between the years 1943 and 1991. After its retirement, the ship was turned into the

Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial The Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial is located at 62 Battleship Place, Camden, New Jersey. This museum ship preserves and displays , the most decorated battleship to have served in the U.S. Navy and one of the largest ever built. Hist ...

, that opened in 2001 along the waterfront. The ''New Jersey'' saw action during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

, the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, and provided support off Lebanon in early 1983. Wiggins Park Marina 1 Port Ctr (Camden)

Other attractions at the Waterfront are the Ulysses Wiggins Park Riverstage and Marina,

One Port Center One Port Center is an office building in Camden, New Jersey located in the Camden Waterfront. The building, opened in 1996, was designed by Michael Graves and is headquarters to the Delaware River Port Authority. The building is situated on a L- ...

, Nipper Building (aka Victor Lofts), the

Walt Whitman House The Walt Whitman House is a historic building in Camden, New Jersey, United States, which was the last residenceHaas, 141 of American poet Walt Whitman, in his declining years before his death. It is located at 330 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Bou ...

, the Walt Whitman Cultural Arts Center, the Rutgers–Camden Center For The Arts and the Camden Children's Garden. An overhead view of the Camden waterfront

An overhead view of the Camden waterfront

In May 2013, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority announced that it would seek developers for the site of the demolished

Riverfront State Prison Riverfront State Prison (RSP) is a former prison in Camden, New Jersey that was operated by the New Jersey Department of Corrections from August 12, 1985, to 2009. It was located in the neighborhood of Cooper Point at the intersection of Delawar ...

just north of the Central Waterfront and the Ben Franklin Bridge in Cooper Point. In September 2013 Waterfront Renaissance Associates announced that it proposed to a develop a 2.3-million-square-foot commercial complex on called the Riverfront World Trade Center. The project would be built in four phases, the first of which would be a promenade along the Delaware River. The plan calls for two 22-story and two 18-story buildings. However, this proposal never came to pass. In September 2016 the

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Ea ...

opened the Philadelphia 76ers Training Complex on the Waterfront. The new headquarters and the state-of-the-art, 120,000-square-foot practice center was made possible in part by $82 million in tax credits approved by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Development incentives

In October 2013,

Herschend Family Entertainment Herschend Family Entertainment (HFE) is a privately owned themed-entertainment company that operates several theme parks and tourist attractions within the United States, and as of 2021, one aquarium in Vancouver, Canada. Founded by Jack and ...

announced they would add an attraction adjacent to the Adventure Aquarium, a , 25-story observation tower ride with a

moored balloon A tethered, moored or captive balloon is a balloon that is restrained by one or more tethers attached to the ground and so it cannot float freely. The base of the tether is wound around the drum of a winch, which may be fixed or mounted on a vehic ...

and

gondola The gondola (, ; vec, góndoła ) is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing oar, which is not fastened to the hull, ...

that would carry passengers above the site offering views of city, the

and the

Philadelphia skyline Philadelphia, the largest city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, is home to more than 300 completed high-rise buildings up to , and 58 completed skyscrapers of or taller,

. It was planned to open in Spring 2015. The state of New Jersey has offered numerous tax incentives to corporations to locate in Camden, many along the Waterfront and Port of Camden districts. In November 2014, the state offered tax incentives to

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

to relocate 250 jobs to labs at the L-3 Building and Waterfront Technology Center. Proposals to build two towers and were unveiled in September 2015. Other elements of the project began construction in December 2016.

American Water Works American Water is an American public utility company that, through its subsidiaries, provides water and wastewater services in the United States. It offers water and wastewater services to approximately 1,700 communities in 14 states serving a po ...

opened its new headquarters. A new Hilton Garden Hotel broke ground in May 2019.

References

{{coord, 39.935593, -75.126809, type:adm3rd_globe:earth_region:US-NJ, display=title Neighborhoods in Camden, New Jersey Tourist attractions in Camden, New Jersey Redeveloped ports and waterfronts in the United States

Attractions

Development incentives

See also

References