The Interview: Joe Donnelly, development director

A weekly Q&A with a member of the local business community.

Joe Donnelly is the director of the Burlington County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the director of economic development. A former mayor of Cinnaminson, Donnelly is a senior sales manager with Hubbell Inc., an electrical manufacturer based in Milford, Conn. In Cinnaminson, he spearheaded a $100 million redevelopment project on Route 130 that includes new commercial and residential development and major highway improvements.

Question: Tell us about your role as the freeholder-director of economic development. How do you manage to juggle a full-time job with your work in the county?

Answer: Being “in business” actually helps me stay abreast of what’s happening across the county and region. I’m on the road a great deal of the day and talk to businesspeople constantly. It’s akin to being a patrol cop with “street smarts.” I’m plenty busy, but I have the good fortune to have a working historical perspective when the time comes to create, consider and adopt pro-growth policies and programs.

Q: Burlington County is the state’s largest county and much of it is protected land. Does this present a challenge to economic development?

A: Actually, from our perspective, it enhances economic development. Farmland, open space and county parks, taken together, are assets that make Burlington County an attractive place to live, work and do business. Beyond that, the freeholder board works with municipalities in the region to develop a plan to balance growth and farmland preservation.

Burlington County has preserved more than 200 farms totaling over 25,000 acres, the highest amount in New Jersey. And as more than one study has confirmed, saving land from sprawl and igh-density development is a better deal for taxpayers, especially when you factor in the cost of providing services to that development. But the key, first and foremost, is balance.

Q: What would attract businesses to Burlington County?

A: Burlington County provides an excellent environment for businesses to prosper. To this end, we enjoy the lowest spending per person among all counties in New Jersey, and last year we were cited by a Pew Foundation report as having the lowest taxes in the region.

We’re fortunate to have a county college and vocational schools (Burlington County Institute of Technology), which craft their course studies to ensure we are training young people and older workers for jobs in the changing workforce. At the same time, the Burlington County Library System has a wealth of resources to assist businesses.

Q: What are some of the more recent projects/businesses in the county?

A: Industrial sites along the Route 130 corridor have been an area of private sector development even during these challenging economic times. We worked hard to help make Florence Township home to a Burlington Coat Factory and encouraged the development of Subaru of America’s new distribution/training center, also in Florence.

Businesses in the county are growing. There is a new Walmart site under construction in Mount Laurel along Route 73. The Virtua Health and Wellness Center in Moores­town, a 200,000-square foot, state-of-the-art health and wellness facility, has just been completed. The Team Campus St. Francis Medical Center in Bordentown, a 124,000-square-foot outpatient treatment facility, is slated for a spring 2013 completion.

Q: How has the sluggish economy affected businesses/jobs in the county?

We saw population grow in most of the towns in our River Route region (Route 130 Corridor) during the last census period, after a long era of declines.

The unemployment rate has fluctuated quite a bit through the period, up and down, but we are looking at a great deal of job growth going forward. And as I have already indicated, new businesses now are breaking ground and growing.