Business district’s budget grows

By ROBERT LINNEHAN | The Haddonfield Sun
The borough is investing more money into its retail landscape.
The Partnership for Haddonfield announced new programming and plans for 2010 and approved its new budget.
The new budget is a little more than $386,000, an increase of more than $32,000 over the 2009 budget.
The new budget will support all of the programming the business improvement district enjoyed in 2009 — including the popular Mom’s the Word celebration and the new First Friday events — plus fund a new bridal event for 2010.
According to Partnership representatives, Haddonfield’s business district has a vacancy rate of 5 percent, which is a successful vacancy rate for this economic climate. In 2009, 12 new businesses opened their doors to shoppers, including six retail stores and six restaurants. In total, 14 businesses closed in 2009, with retailers taking the biggest hit with seven retail stores closing this past year. Five restaurants and two service businesses also closed.
See this week’s print edition of The Sun for the full story.