Theme-park plan for Burlington Island advances

An ambitious plan to turn the uninhabited 400-acre Burlington Island into a historical theme park is advancing, a Mount Holly developer says, even as the state is moving to designate the island's southern end for the dumping of dredge spoils.

Karen Robbins, chief executive of Woolman Community Development, the group the Board of Island Managers chose three years ago to develop the site, said her company wanted to turn the Delaware River island into a re-created 17th-century Lenni Lenape village, trading post, and fort.

The park, she said, would be similar to the Plimouth Plantation tourist attraction in Massachusetts.

Among the attractions Woolman would put on the island are a living-history museum, amphitheater, boatbuilding school, archaeological dig, campground, and nature trails.

The nonprofit board - a trust set up in the early 1700s to fund education for the poor from the island's revenue - accepted Woolman's proposal in 2009 after a long list of other projects fizzled in previous years, including a 2002 bid by Philadelphia entrepreneur Sam Katz to build a golf resort.

The island is partly also under the jurisdiction of Burlington City, and Mayor James Fazzone expressed skepticism over the proposal, saying he had seen too many fall apart in the past.

"We get a lot of tire-kickers, people who come to town and want to put in a housing project or a shopping center, but who are not real players," he said.

But Fazzone said he had not been given enough information about the current proposal to decide whether it was worth supporting.

"I'm not convinced either way. . . . But we would love to develop that island," he said.

The conceptual plans are ready, Robbins said, but now her company is focusing on financing. The company's website, www.woolmancdc.com, offers conceptual renderings and descriptions of the plans.

"It looks very promising," Robbins said. "We are talking to interested investors and we hope to have a partnership agreement soon."

Robbins said the project could take three years to complete, with the first phase - including the re-created village, boating and fishing facilities, and a campground - estimated to cost $2.5 million. She said the group was "working on finalizing" the total cost of the project.

The theme park would be called "Trader's Island" and would highlight the island's rich and storied past, she said.