Debating the future of Mt. Holly's Mill Race Village

Over bowls of creamy clam chowder at her sister's restaurant, the Robin's Nest, Audrey Winzinger sits across from Kent Pipes as the two ponder their next move in Mount Holly neighborhood-building.

Whatever they come up with for moving Mill Race Village past its present frontiers, it is bound to generate controversy.

"Some people don't like me," said Pipes, a former Presbyterian minister and a veteran developer of affordable housing, "and some people don't like Audrey.

"And others don't like either of us," said Pipes, drawing a laugh from Winzinger, whose family has spent 25 years assembling a portfolio of historic buildings at the edge of downtown as living/work space.

Together, the Winzingers, operating as Mill Race Inc., and Pipes, as the Affordable Home Group Inc., own 32 properties in the township's oldest neighborhood, the quaint, artsy retail area of Mill Race Village.

Winzinger calls some of her 25 properties "placeholders" - acquired when they became available through sale or foreclosure but outside the village's current boundaries.

Pipes' seven are those he rehabbed as housing for low- and moderate-income tenants.

Now, the two are talking about the 65,000-square-foot, five-building complex for sale between Church and Monroe Streets.

Last year, Mount Holly rejected a proposal to turn the buildings, one of them the 19th-century T.H. Risdon & Son mill that produced turbine water wheels, into affordable housing for 75 seniors.

The Winzingers, the Mill Race business owners, and even Pipes, whose name is synonymous with affordable housing, opposed the plan.

"Mount Holly has enough affordable housing for its size," he said. "We need housing for people who will spend money in shops and restaurants, who will create a wave that will rejuvenate the rest of town."

Pipes' idea is to tap into the new New Jersey Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit program to help finance the gradual transformation of the five-building property into a mix of high-density housing on top and commercial enterprises on the ground floors.

The renovation of the historic parts of the mill might be eligible for federal tax credits as well.

"The state wants to rebuild communities like this," Pipes said, "and this one is a slam-dunk if they can be made to understand what has happened already here.

"The neighborhood is surrounded by county facilities, a major hospital, and historic buildings. Think of what it could be in five to 10 years."

Winzinger cautions, however, that change does not come overnight and is not always welcome.

"Acquiring 25 buildings has been a long process, a toothless grin slowly filling in to a smile," said Winzinger, seated in her sister's restaurant at Washington and White Streets.

The efforts have been helped by changes in zoning for Mill Race Village that eliminated the need for municipal action each time a building there is acquired and rehabbed as living/work property.

When her sister, Robin, finished culinary school in Philadelphia and wanted to open a restaurant, their mother, Joanne, agreed to finance the venture if it was in Mount Holly.

"My mother likes to buy land on the water," Audrey said, and the long-vacant former appliance store, where her parents met, was in front of the mill race.

In a county seat, the breakfast and lunch business is a winner, but when Robin tried dinner, things hit a wall, she said.

"There needed to be other reasons for people to be here at night, and we thought an artists' village might do it," Audrey said.

That's when the Winzingers started buying houses and creating apartments on top and shops on the first floor.

The market-rate rents for the apartments help subsidize those of the shopkeepers and artists, who usually start on shoestring budgets, Audrey Winzinger said.

Right now, there are 17 shops. The Winzingers and current shopkeepers vet each newcomer, who must follow the village's opening days and hours and join a committee or board in the township "to fully participate in the life of Mount Holly."

"There is little turnover," Winzinger said, "just owners moving to larger spaces as their businesses grow."

"I was the Winzingers' [horse] farm manager when they came to me 22 years ago about starting a business," said Pat Johnson of Teddies of Mount Holly, on White Street.

The buyers of her teddy bears come, either in person or online, from all over the world, Johnson said.

Thelma Harper of Earth Angel, which sells primitives and handmade gifts, has been here 17 years.

"I was the second one here," said Harper, who had been in four other marketplaces before. "It is a pleasant place to work, and the whole atmosphere of the village is inviting."

Susan Thomas of Silver Linings, who lives over her shop, was in Rancocas Woods before coming to Mill Race 16 years ago.

"The Winzingers were customers," she said, adding that success of the community is "working with just one landlord."

Rich Carty of Pineland Folk Music & Basketry, which sells Appalachian and hammered dulcimers, Native American flutes and other folk music instruments and baskets, moved to Mill Race in 2004.

"My wife, son and I talked about coming here, and after a while, we all became receptive to the idea," he said.

"I live about a half-mile from here, and I can bicycle or walk easily," said Carty, adding that "being here has made me care more about this town."