Amid a small-business boomlet, a South Jersey city looks to residential and transit projects to boost downtown

In the heart of Woodbury, where history is abundant but pedestrians are scarce, Sadiyyah Maamoon’s Cultural Collective Cafe & BrickNKulture Event Space is a busy blend of coffee shop, art gallery, yoga studio, performance venue, and more.

“We host book signings, open mics, pop-up shops, and photo shoots.” she said. “We’re a creative space. And our customers like supporting local businesses.”

Maamoon, a South Jersey Realtor for 16 years, also hosts a monthly Black Farmers and Artisans Market in front of the cafe at 65 N. Broad St. While the Gloucester County city of 10,000 has long struggled to revive its business district, she and other entrepreneurs are bullish on Woodbury.

One block south, Tim Zatzariny and his wife, Michelle Kinsman, and Melissa Romano and her daughter, Elle, have opened brick-and-mortar businesses since 2021.

“We’ve always seen the potential here,” said Zatzariny, whose On the Record, a new and used recorded music store at 7 S. Broad, includes a stage for performers.

“The city in general and downtown specifically have suffered from a lack of vision to make something happen,” he said. “We have good organizations here, but they don’t work together. Hopefully that will change.”

In a joint phone interview, city Council Member Phil Hagerty and City Administrator John Leech said Woodbury does have a vision for downtown — one articulated by its master plan, as well as a redevelopment plan for South Broad. Other efforts include a $30,000 housing market study commissioned last year, and the city’s purchase of several privately owned parcels on South Broad, helping pave the way for development there.

“The city doesn’t wave a wand so a business will move in,” Hagerty said. “We can’t afford to offer tax breaks, and there are very few things the city has in its control when it comes to luring businesses. But we do need to be prepared.”

Leech and Hagerty said Woodbury is working with a developer interested in locating a restaurant in the former police headquarters building downtown. The city also anticipates light rail service on the long-proposed Glassboro-Camden Line becoming a reality. Despite opposition, the project recently moved into the preliminary engineering stage.

And the construction of emergency and behavioral health facilities by Inspira Health — which closed its inpatient hospital in Woodbury and opened a new medical center near Glassboro in 2019 — also are expected to be a plus for the city, they said.

Woodbury is negotiating a redevelopment agreement with Tantum-Canoe Brook Development in Roseland, Essex County, for a 223-unit condominium complex with first-floor retail space and a parking garage on the west side of the 100 block of South Broad Street. The city has been assembling the parcel for years and in 2022 commissioned a housing market study to help prepare for such a mixed-use complex.

“We’ve tried every which way we could to get small businesses in here,” Leech said.

“The key for small businesses is to have a steady stream of customers, and to have that, we have to have a development like 100 South Broad.”

Downtown Woodbury is hardly without assets or charm. It‘s the seat of Gloucester County, is graced by several noteworthy buildings, and is within walking distance of several diverse and densely populated neighborhoods.

“But one of the struggles of the downtown district, unfortunately, is with some property owners whose rents are too high and who aren’t willing to work with the businesses,” said Jenna Even, the board president of Main Street Woodbury. The volunteer-driven nonprofit provides grants to small businesses like Maamoon’s for signage and other improvements.

A decade ago, Ryan Morrison opened what is now called the Nerd Mall in a landmark South Broad Street corner property that housed Polsky’s Army-Navy store.

While his business — which incubated Zatzariny’s record store — is doing well with an inventory focused on board games, video games, comic books, and action figures, Morrison said downtown’s biggest challenge is the lack of “walking traffic.”

He attributed the sparse pedestrian flow to the fact that Woodbury doesn’t have anchor retailers with broad appeal. But the proposed condo development could help bring more feet to the street, and businesses downtown “are beginning to get together and move in the right direction,” Morrison said.

At Broad and Delaware, across from the Gloucester County Courthouse complex, Romano and her daughter, Elle, have a commanding view of downtown’s busiest corner through the windows of their Whole & Grounded Cafe.

“In other small towns like Pitman, they have a lot going on,” Melissa said. “But on a Saturday afternoon, nobody’s walking down the street here. I don’t know how you change that.”

Said Elle: “We have gotten great support from the community and from Main Street and the Woodbury Heart and Soul and Woodbury FAF” organizations.

Maamoon, who grew up in Glassboro and lives with her husband in Gloucester Township, said the community feel was a key reason for locating her business in the city.

And after having her business disrupted by the pandemic, “2023 has been my year of a grand reopening,” she said.

“We’ve had book signings, bridal expos, birthday dinners, bridal and baby showers, retreats, pop-up shops, and conferences,” she said. “People come in for the coffee shop, and when they walk through the gallery and the meeting space and event spaces, they’re like, ‘Wow … I didn’t know all this was here.’ ”

Maamoon said creating connections among entrepreneurs and with new customers is part of her mission.

“You’ve got to meet our vendors,” she said, pointing out candlemaker Glenise Huntington, soap maker Aisha Cooper, farmer Cyara Phillips, and others who had booths at the Aug. 19 market.

“Some people don’t know we exist,” said Phillips, who operates the nonprofit Tuba Farm in Glassboro with her husband, Muhammad Khan, and three sons.

“At this market, we get our visibility.”