Comings and goings of pizza shops in South Jersey are not often huge news. In fact, in Washington Township, Gloucester County, you don’t need to go far to find a decent one. In part, that stems from the mass migration of South Philadelphia families to the township over decades. You can’t fool them about good pies.
But a closer look at the exit of Papa’s Pizza on Tuckahoe Road last week suggests not just nostalgia for ardent fans, but a microcosm of the challenges facing small businesses in the region.
According to CBS Philadelphia, buddies Ken Ford and Chuck Green, Papa’s Pizza’s owners, didn’t hang it up after 28 years because they wanted to retire, because the wholesale cost of cheese and tomato sauce had skyrocketed past their ability to charge more, or because they had to pay higher wages and benefits.
While these things may have played a role, Ford blamed the closure on one primary thing: The rent on their shop was slated to go up by 32%, including some water and trash fees, and the new lease was just too expensive to keep the place in business, according to Ford.
“It wasn’t my decision,” Ford told the TV station.
“It’s terrible,” said his co-owner, Green. “I haven’t slept in three weeks.”
As you might expect from TV news, the report focused more on Papa’s Pizza’s fans, the Facebook video about the closing that was shared nearly 800 times, and the longtime customers who lined up each day until the dough and the toppings ran out. Stories about commercial lease affordability are not sexy, but thanks to Channel 3 for at least putting this in the mix.
How many small retail businesses do Ford and Green represent in New Jersey that are just hanging on? Thousands, probably. When we see a previously rented vacant storefront in a strip mall, we’re more likely to think that the operators were bad at running a business, that food or service was subpar, or that the owner died and their heirs had no interest in keeping the place going,
It not just residential rentals that are skyrocketing. Justifiably, there’s been plenty of reporting about that. Because the pizza shop building’s owners didn’t reply to CBS Philadelphia for a comment, we won’t name them, and we shouldn’t automatically conclude that they were profiteering. Maybe they themselves found that the old lease amount didn’t cover their own expenses. Several reasons come to mind for that, especially property taxes, which take a bigger pizza slice in New Jersey than just about anywhere else.
True property tax reform in New Jersey continues to elude our lawmakers and governors. It still gets pushed to a back burner (or the rear of a pizza oven), more so after each new rebate scheme to help senior citizens and other select groups. Don’t get us wrong. The so-called ANCHOR benefit, which provides up to $1,750 annually for income-qualified homeowners, represents the first significant buffer against escalating residential property taxes in years.
The companion STAY-NJ program, targeted at keeping seniors from moving to other states, holds the promise of half-price taxes for age-in-place households. But, there’s also no promise that the state has sufficient money to fund the plan.
This all ignores that businesses will pay full-price property taxes for the foreseeable future, so much so that the smallest mom-and-pop shop to the largest manufacturing company thinks endlessly about moving to other states. This stifles growth within the Garden State, any way you cut it. Good policy should state that homeowners come first, but commercial and industrial sectors need relief, too. Lawmakers rarely talk about this.
Incidentally, none of Papa’s Pizza’s creations landed on NJ Advance Media’s updated list of the state’s “101 greatest pizzas,” which has more South Jersey entries than you might think. It’s a high bar: New Jersey Monthly’s own list estimates there are 2,000 pizza shops in the state.
Maybe Ford and Green will resurface at a spot with a less lofty lease charge. If Papa’s Pizza joins the list of businesses that never come back, it will be another reminder of the hurdles that such enterprises face in New Jersey.
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