By HFT Staff

Chairman George E. Norcross III and Cooper University Health Care announced Cooper will partner with the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters and its construction manager, Torcon Inc. / P. Agnes Inc., to create economic opportunity for the residents of Camden across South Jersey as it begins a $3 billion expansion of its main campus. 

Cooper’s new investment, Project Imagine – the largest in Camden County’s history and one of the largest in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey – will expand the academic health system’s main campus to meet the current and future projected demand at Cooper University Hospital and MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper. The expansion, first announced in September 2022, is expected to break ground on its first tower later this month. 

As part of the joint venture, the Carpenters will serve as the lead construction partner on Cooper’s expansion, working to help establish specific plans to ensure a hiring preference for Camden residents, overall workforce inclusion, hiring and recruitment for apprentice programs. 

The union, working with the construction manager, will also help to ensure the broader community in the City of Camden and the Southern New Jersey Region benefit. Among the priorities for these community benefits will be support of youth and community programs including, but not limited to, the Camden Health & Athletic Association (CHAA) and the Camden Works Program, the area’s premier job training and placement program. Camden Works disseminates a weekly listing of all job openings for every public and private city employer. 

The new Cooper-Carpenter Joint Venture will also include significant disclosure of the effort’s success including regular reports on the number of participants in job training and apprenticeship programs and the number of Camden city residents and from historically underrepresented groups hired. The details of commitments to local civic and other organizations, including youth and community programs, in the City of Camden and Southern New Jersey Region will also be disclosed quarterly.