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Kevin Riordan: Oaklyn looks for ways to revive business strip

Sporadic, scattershot, and slow, efforts to improve the White Horse Pike in Oaklyn may have succeeded in sprucing up the strip a bit but haven't reversed its fortunes.

Sporadic, scattershot, and slow, efforts to improve the White Horse Pike in Oaklyn may have succeeded in sprucing up the strip a bit but haven't reversed its fortunes.

"We want things to move along," says Mayor Robert Forbes, a lifelong resident of the blue-collar suburb of 4,000 people, which designated the pike as a redevelopment zone in 2002.

In the years since, some building owners "haven't done anything with their properties," the mayor says. "And if they're not going to do anything, we're going to help them."

The Oaklyn council is set to hold a hearing Tuesday on the planning board's determination that the condition and location of four privately owned parcels meet criteria for redevelopment.

Forbes says the borough wants to encourage the renovation and reuse of properties including a recently closed PNC Bank branch; an apartment house that's been empty for nearly two decades; the former Casa DiLuzio restaurant; and the long-shuttered Barrington Travel building.

"I'm not in favor of going in and taking properties," Forbes says. "We don't want to be the big bad government."

Some owners insist that Oaklyn's more aggressive strategy will make redevelopment less likely.

"If you let the market determine what's going to happen, usually it works out," says John Sandone, a Haddon Township real estate agent involved in the Casa DiLuzio negotiations. He also owns a commercial building adjacent to Barrington Travel.

"There may be some problems, but it's not a situation that requires [use of a] redevelopment zone," says Dan Kehler, a Berlin Township lawyer representing Anthony Antonelli, the owner of Casa DiLuzio.

Antonelli has been trying to sell that shuttered restaurant - which commands a choice piece of pike frontage just west of Bettlewood Avenue - for several years.

A long-discussed deal between Antonelli and the owners of Lindenwold's popular La Esperanza is "dead in the water," according to executive chef Saul Cordova.

While the planning board's recommendation "wasn't helpful," the prospective sale fell apart because of price and other issues, Cordova says, adding, "Are we still interested in Oaklyn? Absolutely."

"I would love for a deal with La Esperanza to go through," says Forbes. "Who wouldn't want an award-winning restaurant to come to town? If they can strike a deal, great."

Even in its faded state, the Oaklyn stretch of the pike is worth fighting for. The road is heavily traveled - a daily average of about 17,500 vehicles, according to the N.J. Department of Transportation - and surrounded by densely populated neighborhoods.

But despite a good number of strong businesses, the jewel of the Ritz Theatre, and a patchwork of handsome streetscape improvements, the stretch of the pike shared by Oaklyn and Haddon Township is pocked by vacant commercial properties. While some have been renovated, others have moldered.

So I don't fault Mayor Forbes and other borough leaders for trying to jump-start, say, the restoration of a vintage apartment building that has stood vacant for 17 years.

For seemingly desirable properties to sit for so long suggests that waiting even longer for the market to work its magic is not the best strategy.

In fact, it's no strategy at all. Oaklyn deserves better than nothing.