Mayor Zach Houck says the public poll will help gather meaningful data on residents’ attitudes towards alcohol ahead of a broader local redevelopment push.
By Matt Skoufalos | July 17, 2024
On July 16, Haddon Heights Council voted to add a non-binding alcohol referendum to the 2024 ballot. Credit: NJPEN.
Voters in Haddon Heights will have an extra question on their ballot this Election Day, as the borough council seeks to revisit the issue of local alcohol sales.
On Tuesday, the governing body resolved to initiate a non-binding referendum “for the purpose of determining the sentiment of the majority of legal voters” in the borough.
Haddon Heights is a dry town by tradition, not by ordinance, so its council members could introduce and vote on an ordinance to settle the issue without any public participation.
However, Haddon Heights Mayor Zach Houck said the ballot initiative will provide a meaningful indicator of community sentiment ahead of a broader push for redevelopment in the borough business district.
“It’s a general temperature-taking thing, but with redevelopment, now is a huge opportunity to time this,” Houck said. “The town has not had an ordinance permitting liquor licenses for so long that we want to feel the pulse of the community.”
At the same time, the borough government is also working to update its zoning overlays from rehabilitation to redevelopment, specifically in its business districts along Station Avenue, the White Horse and Black Horse Pikes, and Kings Highway.
Houck said that adjustment would enable Haddon Heights to contemplate bigger changes to properties like the recently vacated PNC Bank at 528 Station.
“These are all non-condemnation, and nobody is forcing the sale of a building,” the mayor said.
“I’m not one to change for the sake of change.
“Heights is definitely something special in a sea of pike towns,” Houck said. “We need to make sure that we hold onto that, and foster that kind of character, but at the same time, there’s even opportunities for growth and creative growth.”
Haddon Heights Farmers Market outside the PNC Bank in Haddon Heights in 2015. The bank is now a redevelopment target. Credit: Haddon Heights Farmers Market.
Under regulations established by the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (NJABC), plenary retail consumption liquor licenses — the kind used by bars, restaurants, clubs, and lounges — are allocated by population: one for every 3,000 people in a municipality.
By those metrics, Haddon Heights (population 7,511 in 2023, according to the U.S. Census bureau) would be eligible to create two plenary retail consumption licenses as well as a third for the sale of package goods, in which the borough might not necessarily be interested, Houck said.
“I don’t know that we would want that,” he said. “But we could also get creative, too, in the sense of concessionaire’s licenses down the road if it comes to redevelopment.”
New regulations signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy in January also offer the opportunity for the holder of inactive (attached to a specific location, but not in use) or pocket licenses (active, but not attached to a specific location) to transfer them to new owners in a neighboring community.
Haddon Heights borders Audubon, Barrington, Bellmawr, Haddonfield, Haddon Township, and Mount Ephraim, none of which currently is home to an inactive or pocket license. Moreover, the borough presently is home to an active microbrewery, Tanner Brewing, as well as businesses with winery retail partnerships.
Houck also pointed to the success of community events organized by HIP, Inc. — like its Rhythm and Brews and Sippin’ on Station festivals — as an indicator of the popularity that alcohol sales bring to the borough business district. The mayor believes that the additional economic opportunities that come with liquor licenses could be leveraged either to benefit existing local businesses, or to recruit new ones to town.
“You have 501-503 [Station Avenue] going in with commercial spaces. Do they now pursue a liquor license?” Houck said. “You have Anthony’s and Kunkel’s, two restaurants that have been committed to our town for a long time. Would they be interested in a liquor license?
“Between the events HIP runs, which are well-attended events by the entire community – you see it spans generations, and they’re big hits – we’ve had two breweries in Heights’ history, one of which is still operating,” he continued. “And we have several businesses in town that sell New Jersey wine with the winery license partnership.
“Redevelopment is not hinging on liquor licenses in town, but if there’s ever a time to do it and maximize the gain to the community, now’s the time to do it.”
Tanner Brewing Owner Joseph Gentile in front of a custom map wall at the brewery in 2022. Credit: Matt Skoufalos.
Opportunity and equity
Haddon Heights resident Joe Gentile, both a co-owner of Tanner Brewing and a cofounder of HIP, said he knows alcohol can benefit individual local businesses.
How much it can improve the business district on the whole depends on how the process plays out, however.
“I feel like just because it’s an opportunity doesn’t mean that it is always a good opportunity,” Gentile said.
“I am generally in favor of the idea of having the amenity of liquor as an opportunity for Haddon Heights,” he said. “I think it would be great if it’s done right. I think it’s got to be equitable in the process.”
Gentile, who said he’d personally love the business opportunity to convert Tanner into a brewpub similar to Double Nickel, nonetheless believes that two or three liquor licenses by themselves won’t improve conditions in the borough economy.
“We still need a good amount of improvement for the Station Avenue business district,” Gentile said, “just getting more businesses, getting so it’s more walkable so you want to go there and shop.
“If you put a liquor license in, you’ve got to put just as much work in as you would if it were any other place to get people to come there and continue to frequent the town,” he said.
“It’s an opportunity and it’s a good idea, but the process needs to be rolled out with clarity and distinction, and if that happens, I think it would be helpful.”
Kunkel’s Seafood and Steakhouse owner John Kunkel has been through similar discussions in Haddon Heights, the most recent of which was taken up by Mayor Ed Forte in the summer of 2014.
Like, Gentile, Kunkel’s take is that the question of issuing liquor licenses boils down to how they are distributed, and how the potential positive impact of that amenity is shared across the borough.
“People that would be in charge have a false sense of what a startup liquor license would be worth,” he said. “It’s whether the towns wants a corporate atmosphere in the location where they would run a liquor license.”
Auctioning off liquor licenses to the highest bidders could invite new business interests to town, but Kunkel is skeptical that the process would yield a financial windfall for the borough.
The staff at John Kunkel’s Haddon Heights steakhouse in 2014. Credit: Matt Skoufalos.
“Am I looking to spend $100,000 in a startup license?” Kunkel said.
“The last one in the area was $50,000, which went to Applebees in Audubon.
“Liquor licenses back then were going for $300,000, $400,000.”
Moreover, he said, there’s as much of a difference between operating a restaurant that serves alcohol versus a bar that serves food as there is a locally owned, independent establishment and a corporate chain.
Kunkel believes that any outside developers with deep enough pockets to outbid local, established businesses for a license wouldn’t have much interest in siting their operation in the Station Avenue district, preferring instead to locate it on the White or Black Horse Pikes, or Kings Highway.
“In the past, they would have limited it to existing businesses, existing locations, broken down to the point where the restaurants that have been in town for 20 years or more would have had the opportunity to buy it at a reasonable rate,” Kunkel said.
Although the restaurateur said he would bid on a license were it available in Haddon Heights, he wouldn’t overleverage himself to do it. Kunkel’s steakhouse does have a 10-seat bar presently, but it’s limited to food service. He said the business does well enough as a BYOB that changing its makeup would also require him to rebuild his clientele.
“I’m interested, but way lower than what they are thinking about,” Kunkel said. “I’ll bid it at a price that’s reasonable for me to go with it.
“I’ve been in this business since 1979; l’ve had restaurants with licenses and without,” he said. When you transition from a BYOB to a licensed restaurant, you lose about 60 percent of your clientele.
“Put all those factors together, is it worth it to me to invest in a liquor license 20 years after they promised me [it was coming]?”
Whatever the outcome of the referendum, Houck said that borough leaders will exercise due diligence with the best interests of the community on the whole at heart, and with the input of restaurateurs like Kunkel as well.
“I think the goal here is really to use it as an opportunity to gauge the pulse of the community and from there, make an educated decision,” the mayor said.
“In the months leading up to this, it’s about putting out good information about what that referendum question is going to ask, and what is means if you say yes and no,” he said. “The key is to educate people about what it means.”
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