This iconic Cherry Hill restaurant could be demolished to build a car wash

CHERRY HILL – A landmark restaurant here could be demolished to make way for a carwash.

A New York firm wants to build an automated carwash at the longtime site of the Cherry Hill Diner at Route 38 and Cooper Landing Road, according to an application before the township’s planning board.

A diner has operated on the property since 1965, four years after the emerging suburb of Cherry Hill changed its name from Delaware Township.

The restaurant is a classic South Jersey diner, with a red-and-chrome exterior overlooking what was once a free-wheeling traffic circle.

Its wide-ranging menu includes Philly cheesesteak egg rolls, snapper and matzoh ball soups, sauteed beef liver, and a 16-ounce "Gigantic Chophouse Burger."

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A diner representative could not be reached for immediate comment.

The 3,620-square-foot carwash, Tidal Wave Auto Spa, would include 24 self-service vacuum stations.

“The car wash operations will include two lanes of stacking for customers to access the pay stations,” says the application from PJ Land Development of Farmingdale, Long Island.

“One lane will serve monthly members and the other will serve single paying customers,” it says.

The planning board last month approved a similar proposal for a Tidal Wave Auto Spa at the current site of a commercial strip on Route 70 between Cornell and Delaware avenues. That project calls for the demolition of buildings that held a former daycare center, a massage parlor and other businesses.

Both carwashes are expected to have eight to 15 full- and part-time employees, according to PJ Land Development.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Cherry Hill Diner could be demolished to build car wash