Spotlight on: Christina Renna, President & CEO, Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey
February 2025 — Christina Renna, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey, spoke with Invest: about how the chamber promotes economic growth, why South Jersey is an attractive place for businesses, and some of the challenges and opportunities in the region.
What have been some recent efforts of the chamber to promote economic growth and a dynamic community in Southern New Jersey?
Our chamber is the largest and most influential business organization in the southern region of New Jersey. We represent over 1,200 member companies, 82 percent of which are small businesses. We have over 170 nonprofit organizations, as well as many large anchor institutions, such as the casinos, hospitals, large manufacturing companies, and institutions of higher education. It is our job to make sure all of the businesses in the region are connected and doing business with each other. Our goal is to keep the economic activity and jobs in the southern part of the state, help individuals grow their organizations, and help connect businesses with policymakers. Our Chamber is an apolitical organization that works with policymakers on both sides of the aisle to advocate for and promote the regional economy.
How would you describe the strength of the South Jersey business environment, and what makes the South Jersey region an attractive location for businesses?
The state of the economy is decent. Looking at 2025, there is a lot of optimism as it relates to opportunities, job growth, and attracting new industries and businesses to the region. Businesses feel confident that 2025 is going to be a better year than 2024. South Jersey is getting more attention from a variety of different industries and businesses, both nationally and internationally. Businesses are looking to expand or relocate here more so than any other time in the past. The cost of living in south Jersey is cheaper than in the north, which is an attractive quality for industries and businesses looking for a new home. North Jersey is dense without much room for new buildings or to conduct expansive new development. South Jersey has more developable space than ever, and it is close to New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
How does the state government budget help stimulate the economy in South New Jersey?
The fiscal year that just ended was a difficult one for South Jersey. Governor Phil Murphy passed a corporate transit fee, a 2.5 percent tax on all corporations making over $10 million a year. The reason this disproportionately impacted South Jersey employers is because the money generated from the fee was going to New Jersey TRANSIT to help fix our mass transit system in the state. It is something the state needs, but here in South Jersey, New Jersey TRANSIT has an extremely limited presence. We do not have many mass transit options with limited rail lines and bus routes. Why should businesses be forced to pay for a public service they desperately want, but don’t have? Aside from the Corporate Transit Fee, there were some cuts in higher education, which caused heartache for some of our institutions in South Jersey and could impact our future workforce. And unfortunately, this budget cycle is going to be much more difficult than the last. The state is running short of money, which we became flush with as a result of the pandemic. The state is getting back to what a normalized budget looks like, one without a lot of extra room for spending, at a time when the last few budget cycles saw record spending. I do not want to be negative about this upcoming budget cycle, but there are some challenges that may not be overly positive for the business community.
How do you see the corporate transit tax influencing the business landscape in South Jersey?
The biggest takeaway is that large employers would love to have mass transit available because it will help them attract a larger, stronger workforce. South Jersey is reliant mostly on cars to get from point A to point B. It makes hiring from outside of our backyard much more difficult and those in underserved areas may not have the ability to own cars to use for commuting to work. Of course, the counterargument is that larger employers can afford a 2.5 percent tax increase, but it does not take away from the point that they are being taxed for public services that they do not have access to.
What role will the chamber have in finding solutions that support both infrastructure funding and business growth?
The biggest obstacle is that the majority of policymakers in New Jersey are not from South Jersey, so there is a gap in understanding of what the region is really all about. Generally, when people think of South Jersey they think of three things: the Jersey Shore, Atlantic City casinos, and the city of Camden. It is our Chamber’s responsibility to educate policymakers on the various opportunities and challenges – county by county – because each county landscape is different. As a result, it is hard to make holistic policies, from a government perspective, that impact the region in totality. It is our job as a Chamber of Commerce to represent the entire region and educate policymakers that South Jersey is not just Camden, Atlantic City, and beaches. There is so much more happening here, but it takes a strategic approach to creating policy that will help the region as a whole.
Have you seen any significant shift in membership over the past couple of years, and if so, to what does your team attribute this change?
The South Jersey Chamber has grown exponentially over the past five years. I took over the role of president and CEO in January 2020 and was fortunate to have a supportive Board of Directors that embraced my vision to create a Chamber of Commerce that emphasizes community just as much as business. At the time, we needed to attract more nonprofits and community organizations to partner with private-sector businesses. We needed to attract more diverse businesses, such as women-owned, black/brown-owned and veteran-owned businesses. That approach was supported by my Board and the vision we had in 2019 has resonated.
Our growth is attributed to the fact that we, as a Chamber, recognize that large businesses in South Jersey are our anchor and backbone, but at the end of the day, that is not all the South Jersey business community is. Eighty-two percent of our members are small businesses and we have over 170 nonprofit entities involved as well. It is a community-centric focus and approach that sets us apart from other organizations and has allowed us to grow at a rapid rate in recent years.
What is your outlook for the South Jersey economy for the next two to three years?
As of January 2025, I think there will be a few strong years ahead. The State and the region may have difficulties and challenges, but overall the general feeling is that we are headed in the right direction. South Jersey needs a strong casino industry to continue thriving. It is the backbone of the South Jersey economy and brick-and-mortar casinos still have not rebounded fully from the pandemic. Our casinos in Atlantic City employ 22,000 South Jersey residents and we want to make sure those jobs remain. There are also question marks around wind energy. South Jersey was seen as the future hub in the Northeast for wind energy production over the past four to six years. Governor Murphy has been such a strong supporter of bringing wind energy to South Jersey, but he will be leaving office after this year’s election. Federally, we have an incoming president who is vocally skeptical of wind energy. What this means for the industry and our region is yet to be seen. The Chamber remains fully committed to our wind energy companies that have invested and participated in the South Jersey business community over recent years. Lastly, as Camden goes so goes the rest of the region. Camden continues to thrive with the announcement and recent groundbreaking of Cooper University Healthcare’s $3 billion expansion project. When you combine that with the new Walter Rand Transportation Center, and the newly announced Beacon Building, things continue to look up for the city, and therefore, South Jersey.
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