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By EILEEN SULLIVAN
Courier-Post Staff
There's no doubt about it - business in Collingswood is booming.
Currently there are 245 businesses in the borough, with more moving in every day.
Right now Haddon Avenue is the talk of many towns. The range of unique retail stores brings walk-in shoppers and at least one restaurant is so successful, they're turning people away. Neighboring towns, like Haddon Township, want similar booming business districts.
``We have had to do a lot of work, but I think the toughest part that we had to do is to get everyone to believe that we could improve, and I think they see it now,'' Collingswood Mayor M. James Maley Jr. said.
Haddon Avenue is one of three economic redevelopment districts in the borough - Route 130 and West Collingswood are the other two - and once was the main focus of the borough's economic redevelopment effort. Now it is doing especially well.
Steven Eberly and his wife, Teresa, opened a functional art gallery in June 1998. Eberly said he took a look at Haddon Avenue in Collingswood because his wife had lived there and was familiar with the area.
``I was looking at this street and saying, `Man, this is such a great street. I wonder why it's not doing better?'" he said.
The Eberly Gallery, the only store of its kind on the street at the time, was an instant success. Since then, Eberly has opened two more stores - The Purple Iris, which sells garden themed items, and Eat Your Peas, a children's clothing store. He said he even has plans for more stores and possibly a restaurant.
``(Haddon Avenue has) the perfect size stores and the perfect priced stores,'' he said of the retail market on the avenue.
But Eberly, like many others in the borough, said restaurants are a must.
``If you want people to walk the streets, you have to give them something else to do than shop,'' Eberly said.
Italian eatery Villa Barone, which opened in 1994, is so popular that owner Vincenzo Barone said he has to turn people away because it's so busy.
Lydia Cipriani and her husband, Mark Smith, plan to open a gourmet restaurant with a Mexican flair here in a few months.
``It will be the only one of its kind on Haddon Avenue, maybe in South Jersey,'' Cipriani said.
The Cherry Hill couple had a catering business in Westmont. They plan to buy the building their restaurant will occupy.
``We don't simply want to own a business, we want to be committed to the community where we operate,'' Cipriani said.
Jerry Chambers, a longtime business owner in the borough, said his goal is to have more social events each year. He wants the businesses to market and support events like a folk festival, or wine tastings, so that eventually Collingswood becomes the destination people think about when they seek entertainment.
``(I want) to have people say when they get up in the morning, `Where do I want to go? New Hope, Lambertville or Collingswood?'" said Chambers, who is also president of Collingswood Partners, an organization that promotes downtown development.
Mayor Maley said the borough's successes have been the culmination of a series of small steps forward.
``Our strategy has been working on the worst spot, concentrate on specific projects and the areas that need it the most,'' he said. ``You just keep working hard to make the worst area a little better.''
Two areas now getting the borough's attention are West Collingswood, from the PATCO Hi-Speedline to Richey Avenue, and the Route 130 corridor, in the vicinity of the Collingswood Circle.
Architect Philip Kunz is moving his firm from its Center City Philadelphia location on Rittenhouse Square to Collings Avenue. Kunz purchased the bank building at 700 Collings Ave. and plans to be up and running by mid- summer.
Kunz, of Merchantville, said he looked at the bank building on a Saturday morning and ended up spending the entire day in Collingswood.
Kunz's firm, Philip D. Kunz Architects Inc., meets clients at its office 50 percent of the time, he said. This will not only bring people through Collingswood, but it will provide an opportunity for them to do some dining and shopping while passing through.
``It's just an up-and-coming area and it's relatively close to the city,'' Kunz said.
Beau Monde, a hair salon, also opened in that part of town. Maley said it's the first new business building in the area in about 50 years.
And work is under way for Pewter Village, a new apartment community for residents aged 55 and older.
Maley said the developer of Pewter Village also is interested in opening a few storefronts near the railroad tracks to make the development a distinctive neighborhood.
As for the Route 130 corridor, Maley said the borough wants to keep the area as is with light industrial businesses. He said the borough wants to clean up and fill in some of the vacant property.
``A bunch of used car lots and things don't look as good as they could,'' he said.
With state Department of Transportation plans to eliminate the Collingswood Circle, Maley said most of the improvements to that business district will be in conjunction with the road changes.
The borough still is looking for someone renovate the former Peter Lumber site on Haddon Avenue. Ideally the site would become a town center with store fronts downstairs, apartments upstairs and some office space. Maley said he continues to get calls from people interested.
But as Eberly said, the possibilities for new businesses here are ``unlimited.''
``We've come a very long way in a very short period of time,'' Eberly said. ``It's just having that really cool mix (of retail businesses) and it being really functional for people in the area.''
Today and Tomorrow stories:- Profile: Collingswood
- Collingswood: Blending its past, present
Incorporated in 1888, the borough of Collingswood has managed to hold on to its past while meeting the challenges of the present and looking forward to those of the future. - English as a Second Language classes double in size
While many teachers at Collingswood schools have seen their class sizes shrink over the past decade, the number of students in Alyce DelCastillo's classes has doubled in the last five years. - Collingswood booms with robust business districts
There's no doubt about it - business in Collingswood is booming. - Slowly, but surely, town's population is becoming younger
Joan Ferrara can easily recall three neighbors on her street - all of whom were well into their sunset years - who have passed away in the past few years. - Library stays connected to town's changing ethnic patterns
Like other institutions in this all-American inner-ring suburb, the Collingswood Public Library has found itself changing to meet the changing needs of the borough's citizenry. - Single-family homes in, duplexes out
Collingswood Mayor M. James Maley Jr. said just about every neighborhood in his borough has a problem duplex property. - Night life: The Living Room is the place to be
On the corner of Collings and Haddon avenues is a building that shines in the evening like a welcoming beacon on a mostly darkened street. It's The Living Room, a coffee house where locals and people from out of town gather to hear live music and have a good time. - What do you think will be different in Collingswood in 2010?
Donna Herbster, 31, owns Halo, a boutique on Haddon Avenueand lives above the store.