‘Little India’ Thrives in Central New Jersey

WOODBRIDGE, N.J.—When Chaman Nayar opened his Indian fabric business more than three decades ago on Oak Tree Road here, the neighborhood was rundown and desolate, plagued by boarded-up and vacant buildings.

Today, Oak Tree Road is known as “Little India,” a booming ethnic business district, which runs about 1½ miles in central New Jersey and attracts South Asian customers from Maine to Maryland. Mr. Nayar owns a high-end jewelry store and is the landlord of the building where he opened his first shop.