By Jessica Oates
The Hamilton Partnership celebrates its 20th anniversary
Plenty of Hamiltonians frequent the Home Depot on Route 130, the Hamilton AMC movie theater and the Hamilton Marketplace, but few give a thought about how those businesses got there.
The members of the Hamilton Partnership do, though.
Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, the partnership launched in 1994 to connect businesspeople in Hamilton with the local government, to support industrial, commercial and economic development within the township and to facilitate overall business growth. The group’s leadership credits Jack Rafferty, who was mayor of Hamilton from 1976 to 1999, with first organizing business leaders in the community into a partnership and encouraging them to have a voice in the township.
The Hamilton Partnership is open to community business leaders and meets once a month to discuss issues and keep a bridge between the organization and the town administration. It is a non-partisan organization.
“The Partnership has gone through four different mayors and administrations,” chairman Greg Blair said. “No matter what, we have always had a strong partnership.”
The Partnership started at a time of significant development in Hamilton, and held several meetings to discuss big projects. Among those projects are the aforementioned trio of Home Depot, AMC and the Hamilton Marketplace. Blair said the group worked—and still does work—with township officials to help situate the new businesses in the optimum locations.
Two decades later, the Partnership is still going strong. Rafferty now serves as the organization’s executive director, and while his group doesn’t have the authority to implement change, he believes it has definitely played a role in shaping Hamilton.
One of the Partnership’s greatest accomplishments, Rafferty said, is the role it played in guiding the development of the Hamilton Marketplace more than a decade ago.
“The fellow who was in charge of the project came to us,” Rafferty said. “He was from Ohio, and was having some difficulty knowing just who to contact regarding inspections and other details like that. We took care of him and saved him quite a bit of money by streamlining the process. That’s the type of situation you feel good about. It makes people feel good about Hamilton as a township.”
Blair, the Partnership’s chairman, is one local businessman who saw value in what the organization was doing. He joined through his company, Nottingham Insurance, in the Partnership’s early days. He said his firm felt the Partnership would be a good resource, and encouraged anyone who is interested in starting a project or bringing a business to Hamilton to take the same step he did.
“We act as a network, connecting business leaders with the right people, from planning to engineering, to town administration, so that they can really get the ball rolling and check off several items on their “to do” list quickly,” Blair said.
Blair’s primary responsibility as chairman is growing membership and ensuring that meetings are productive and interesting. When healthcare reform came to the forefront, the Partnership invited industry officials to speak about what changes business owners could expect. After Hurricane Sandy, the Partnership held a forum with PSEG representatives and township zoning board members about how to prepare for another storm of that size. When the township revised its Master Plan several years ago, the Partnership gathered suggestions for the Route 33 segment of town. The John Bencivengo administration eventually adopted many of the ideas, including the proposal to divide Route 33 into four distinct development districts, Blair said.
The latest item on the Partnership’s agenda is ensuring the vacant Patterson Chevrolet and Hamilton Chrysler car dealerships will be filled by the right kind of businesses. Blair said the township intends to put retail businesses there, but had no other details. One of the sites will be filled by a Super Wawa gas station.
“Hamilton Township has a great open door policy,” Blair said. “Business leaders can walk right in and present their ideas to the mayor—and that’s great—but some people feel more comfortable attending our meetings and becoming part of the network. At our meetings, you will sit amongst other leaders and learn about everything happening in town much earlier than you would otherwise. You get primary access to information. And whenever you decide to take on a project, you will have the support of friends in your corner.”
The Partnership currently has 35 members, and celebrated its anniversary earlier in the year with a picnic and membership drive hosted by Rafferty at his home, and a holiday social on Dec. 2. The former mayor still believes in the project he helped start 20 years ago.
“I still feel very energized about the Partnership,” Rafferty said. “It never gets boring.”
To learn more about the Hamilton Partnership, go online to hamiltonpartnership.com.
