Invest: South Jersey 2021

Page 16

Michele Gillian Executive Director Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce

What differentiates Ocean City from other areas in South Jersey? Ocean City is known as America’s greatest family resort, and we have been for over a hundred years. We truly are a clean, safe community with family-oriented entertainment. We are a dry community as well, which feeds into the family environment. Anyone from 6 months to 100 and then some could have fun in Ocean City. What improvements to the local economy are you seeing? The economic activity is exceeding 2019. I think we had an opportunity and we’ve taken advantage of that opportunity with our marketing campaign. Digital marketing, TV and other avenues have helped keep Ocean City at the forefront, with an opportunity to present Ocean City as a place where you can enjoy a lot of outdoor activities. We embraced this outdoor opportunity this year and we’re seeing so many new visitors that we’ve never had before. They’re not just from the Philadelphia area and the New York area. We’ve seen an increase in business, our restaurants are booming as we pivoted to outdoor dining last year and continued that this year. We’ve seen retail doing extremely well too. What business segments are the main drivers of economic activity? Our attractions were challenged in the past year by the limitations set by the governor. The limitations affected different events, such as weddings and family reunions. This year, it’s very difficult to even get a wedding date for next year so we’re certainly booked for weddings, and in our accommodations and rentals. Home sales have exceeded all expectations. The process of cashbased bidding wars for multimillion-dollar homes is unbelievable. We’re also seeing activity in tourism with our unique Downtown, that has six, full blocks of shopping. We have a shopping attraction district on the boardwalk. People like that sense of a town. 14

| Invest: South Jersey 2021 | ECONOMY

Ninety percent of the population in New Jersey lives in urban areas.

( ) for arts and entertainment. Although the leisure and hospitality sectors now account for much less of New Jersey’s overall GDP compared to 2009, they are still pillars of many South Jersey counties, like Cape May, and cities, like Atlantic City. “As much as people are anxious to get back to some sense of normal, it’s going to be a slow restart,” said Kristi Howell, president and CEO of the Burlington County Regional Chamber of Commerce. “The restaurant industry will start to rebound because people want to get out. In general, everyone getting back to normal, what that looks like and what normal spend looks like are going to take a while. Our hotels, which are typically at 80-90% occupancy during the week with business travel, are going to see 18 months to two years pass before they witness a fully recovered business travel segment. Now that we have become so used to virtual platforms, there is a legitimate question over whether we are ever going to recover pre-pandemic business travel levels.” Economic performance The pandemic came on the heels of South Jersey’s best year of growth in almost four decades, hitting tourism and hospitality-related businesses particularly hard. The sector accounts for 15% of the region’s economy and


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook

Articles inside

Interview: Ali Houshmand

3min
pages 146-148

Perspective: Community College

2min
page 145

Interview: Merodie Hancock

2min
page 137

Interview: Frederick Keating

2min
page 138

Interview: Joseph Marbach

5min
pages 139-140

Market Voices: Education specialties Monica Adya, Dean, Rutgers School of Business-Camden

2min
page 141

Interview: Barbara Gaba, President Atlantic Cape Community College

4min
pages 143-144

Interview: Antonio Tillis, Chancellor Rutgers University – Camden

3min
page 142

Brave new world: As lockdowns

2min
page 136

Cornerstones: Telehealth legislation

2min
pages 134-135

Interview: Brian Sweeney, President

4min
pages 132-133

Interview: Al Maghazehe, President & CEO, Capital Health

3min
pages 130-131

Roundtable: Healthcare trends David Baiada, CEO, BAYADA Home Health Care

9min
pages 124-127

Interview: Amy Mansue, President CEO, Inspira Health Network

4min
pages 128-129

Interview: Alexander Vaccaro

2min
page 121

Interview: Mary Ann Boccolini

4min
pages 122-123

Recovery: It was a tough year for healthcare practitioners but a light is shining at the end of the tunnel

2min
page 120

Interview: James Andreacci, Market

2min
pages 117-119

Interview: Denise Monahan, Group

2min
page 113

Interview: John Herring, New Jersey Market President, Liberty Bell Bank - A Division of The Bank of Delmarva

4min
pages 111-112

Interview: Anthony DeSalle

2min
page 116

Interview: Louis Lombardi, Senior

2min
page 106

Interview: Harry Stone, President CEO, Cooperative Business Assistance Corporation (CBAC)

4min
pages 107-108

Interview: Vincent D’Alessandro

2min
page 110

Interview: Rob Curley, South Jersey Market President, TD Bank

2min
page 105

New approach: South Jersey’s pandemic takeaways are translating into future growth and resilience

1min
page 104

Perspectives: Industrial evolution

3min
page 98

Roundtable: Energy innovation Mike Renna, President & CEO, South Jersey Industries Gary Stockbridge, Region President, Atlantic City Electric & Delmarva Power

6min
pages 96-97

Interview: Carl Ortell, CEO, Holman Enterprises

5min
pages 94-95

Interview: Stephen Dougherty

5min
pages 99-100

Interview: Joseph Divis, Interim

3min
page 101

Interview: Andrew Saporito

4min
pages 102-103

Interview: John Hanson, President CEO, DRPA | PATCO

2min
page 93

Economic catalyst: Job creation

1min
page 92

Interview: Anthony Mazzarelli, Co

6min
pages 89-91

Interview: Kevin O’Dowd, Co-CEO

3min
page 88

Interview: Sidney Brown, CEO, NFI

2min
page 85

Interview: Dana Redd, Chief

3min
page 87

Interview: Kris Kolluri, President & CEO, Camden Community Partnership, Inc.

2min
page 83

County Cornerstones

2min
page 84

Interview: Victor Carstarphen

2min
page 82

Interview: Louis Cappelli Jr

2min
page 81

Looking forward: The transformation of Camden County is well underway, with significant signs of success

2min
page 80

Interview: Joe Jingoli, CEO, JINGOLI

5min
pages 76-79

Interview: John O’Donnell, CEO, The

3min
page 74

Interview: Chris Wilhelm, Regional

3min
page 73

Market voices: Construction outlook Anne Koons, CEO, Vineland Construction

2min
page 75

Interview: David Hammond, CEO

2min
page 72

Interview: Stephen Schoch

6min
pages 70-71

Perspectives: Real estate activity

3min
page 69

Interview: Joseph Maressa

4min
pages 67-68

Interview: Gerald Thornton

7min
pages 59-61

County Cornerstones

2min
page 62

Interview: Jay Gillian, Mayor, Ocean City

3min
pages 63-65

Interview: Vicki Clark, President Cape May County Chamber of Commerce

5min
pages 57-58

Interview: Leonard Desiderio

2min
page 56

Interview: Diane Wieland, Tourism

2min
page 55

Coastal Shift: Cape May County is well on the path to recovery, with more than tourism in its sights

1min
page 54

Perspectives: Pandemic fallout

3min
pages 51-53

Interview: Charlie Muracco, CEO

5min
pages 49-50

Interview: Steven Poulathas

5min
pages 46-47

Interview: Paul Ritter, President CEO, Cumberland Mutual

3min
page 45

Interview: Timothy Guim, President & CEO, PCH Technologies

5min
pages 43-44

Interview: Elaine Damm, CEO, ACCU Staffing Services

2min
page 42

Interview: George Norcross

2min
page 41

New blueprint: Professional services firms are taking the lead in guiding clients through a new business landscape

2min
page 40

Interview: Eustace Mita, CEO

2min
page 35

Interview: John Siciliano, Executive

2min
page 36

Perspective: Sustainability and sports

3min
pages 37-39

Interview: Larry Sieg, President CEO, Meet AC

4min
pages 33-34

Interview: Michael Snyder, Director

2min
page 32

Interview: Heather Simmons

4min
pages 29-30

Tough year: The struggles of the past year are well known but signs of a rebound are emerging

2min
page 31

Interview: Louis Cappelli Jr

2min
page 28

Market voices: Transformative developments Ray Jones, President, Camden Business Association Ben Laury, Director of County Commissioners, Salem County Lauren Moore, President, Atlantic County Economic Alliance Stephen Steglik, Mayor, Township of Mount Laurel

4min
pages 22-23

Interview: Michele Siekerka

4min
pages 24-25

Cornerstones: Emerging Film Industry

3min
page 26

Interview: Stephen Sweeney, Senate

2min
page 21

Interview: Marlene Asselta

2min
page 17

Interview: Michele Gillian, Executive

2min
page 16

Roundtable: Chambers of commerce Janet Garraty, Director, Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce Dawn Hunter, Executive Director, Greater Vineland Chamber of

7min
pages 18-20

The next big thing: With an emerging

2min
page 10

Interview: Jose Lozano, President CEO, Choose New Jersey

2min
page 15

Interview: Phil Murphy, Governor State of New Jersey

2min
page 11

Interview: Gerard Velazquez

5min
pages 13-14

Interview: Christina Renna

2min
page 12
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.