AKIRA SUWA / Staff Photographer
An impromptu jam outside the Bus Stop Music Cafe in Pitman. With the rebirth of the old theater there, business has been looking up.
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Downtown Pitman thriving
A restored 1920s vaudeville hall where Frank Sinatra once crooned is slowly sparking a rebirth of Pitman's downtown.
Vacant for years, the Broadway Theatre reopened three years ago as a venue for stage plays, children's theater, movies, comedy acts, and concerts. Pitman native Peter Slack, who became a successful medical publisher, bought it for $323,000 at a sheriff's sale and began building loyal audiences that now pack the place most weekends.
Nearly 800 tickets are sold per show - three-quarters of the house - attracting about 118,000 people a year to South Broadway in the tiny Gloucester County borough.
Over the last year or so, three restaurants opened, followed by two more last month. A sixth could open soon.
"Our theatergoers have been asking us for years, 'Where's a good place to eat?' and nine times out of 10 they would have to go out of town. We had pizza joints," said Darrell Blood, the theater's business manager.
The downtown, a two-block stretch with a music cafe, a hobby and craft shop, a chess specialty store, an old-fashioned bakery, and a tea parlor, is creating a buzz in the two-square-mile community of 9,800.
"It's making a comeback," said Mayor Michael Batten, a Pitman barber for 40 years.
Having survived fierce competition from malls and shopping centers, it's one of the few downtowns in the region.
Only about 120 of the state's 566 municipalities have downtowns or village centers, said Jef Buehler, coordinator of Main Street New Jersey, a state revitalization program. Other downtowns include Collingswood, Millville, Mount Holly, Mullica Hill, Haddonfield, and Moorestown.
The recession has hurt because downtowns are "de facto incubators for start-ups," which may fail when consumers stop spending, Buehler said. On the other hand, some shops are having a spike in business because people are staying closer to home and attending downtown events.
Some mall stores have moved into downtowns where the rent is cheaper and traffic is up, he said.
Collingswood's business district is thriving despite the economy, Mayor Jim Maley said. In eight years, the borough transformed a tired seven-block downtown into a gastronomic destination with about 15 restaurants. Two more opened in the last two months, he said, and a third is about to follow.
There are only a handful of vacancies, which Maley describes as "the usual turnover."
Pitman has hired Maley, a lawyer who has become a consultant on downtown revitalization, for guidance.
"Downtowns have been more popular the past couple years," he said. "Even the malls are trying to look like them. It's what people like."
As in Pitman, part of Collingswood's comeback can be traced to the restoration of an entertainment venue, the Scottish Rite Auditorium. Redevelopment and business-friendly ordinances also helped.
Though Pitman sits in the shadow of Rowan University in Glassboro, it remains a family town where children walk to schools and blue laws prohibit the sale of alcohol. The median income is around $61,000, according to the last census.
Glassboro's construction of a multimillion-dollar downtown along Rowan Boulevard won't undermine Pitman's success, Maley said, because Pitman is "the genuine article," not a replica.
"Every town has its own distinct flavor, a different mix, as towns develop and find their niche," he said.
Pitman's centerpiece is its historic theater, Maley said, just as Millville has a new colony of painters, sculptors, and craftspeople.
Woodbury, another of Maley's clients, wants to reinvent its sleepy downtown by restoring the historic G.G. Green building, a long-vacant opera house and theater.
A national 2007 Americans for the Arts study found that every theater ticket sold generates about $30 in a local economy, said Brian Wilson, a redeveloper interested in the old opera house.
Batten called Pitman's Broadway Theatre the catalyst for the arrival of upscale restaurants such as Barcelona European Bistro.
"When a restaurant owner hears there are 800 people who want to have dinner before a play, that's very inviting," he said.
The Spanish-Mediterranean eatery, which seats 75, opened last month, around the same time new owners took over the Grill.
During the last year or so, the Bus Stop Music Cafe began serving organic dishes, Sweet Lula's enticed foodies with eclectic offerings, and the Ground House appeared on the scene.
And soon, Guillermo's of Washington Township is expected to open a Pitman restaurant.
"I saw the tremendous amount of potential Pitman has," said Brazilian native Mark Nascimento, Barcelona's owner.
The restaurants are BYOB due to old borough laws. Two years ago, local officials were swept out of office when they considered rescinding the statutes.
Danielle Forsman, a part-owner of the Bus Stop Music Cafe, said the borough eased rules slightly by allowing liquor to be served by special permit during limited hours over the Memorial Day weekend.
The borough also is promoting the downtown as an arts and entertainment destination.
Monthly "Fourth Friday" street fairs feature antique cars, horse-and-buggy rides, live music, and longer shopping hours. Craft shows and parades also stir interest, Forsman said.
"This is a quaint little town," she said.
Four times a week, the cafe has live jazz, reggae, or rock. On open-mike night, Victor Martinson, her partner, sometimes plays banjo or spoons and a friend coaxes tunes from a saw.
Several years ago, the downtown got a face-lift - red-brick walkways, streetlamps, and trees. Now, officials are busy increasing parking spots. A state proposal to extend a light-rail line through the county near downtown could bring in more business.
About three storefronts are vacant, down from six or so a few years ago, Batten said. "We're definitely coming back."
Frank Kircher, 63, a lifelong resident, agrees. "A few years ago it seemed like it was going downhill," he said during a stroll downtown last week. "Businesses were moving out and no one was coming in."
Contact staff writer Jan Hefler at 856-779-3224 or jhefler@phillynews.com.
