ASBURY PARK, N.J.  For about a decade this Jersey Shore town, immortalized on a Bruce Springsteen album cover, has been on a slow upward trajectory  most visibly along its boardwalk, where dozens of new businesses have opened since 2007, when Madison Marquette of Washington stepped in as developer.

Now that prosperity has started to spread a few blocks inland. Commercial activity is picking up in the less-glamorous heart of downtown, a walkable stretch of small and midsize storefront buildings.

“Tons of people have looked at property here over the years and then gone home,” said Tom Gilmour, Asbury Park’s director of commerce and economic development. “They’re back.”

Business owners point to a confluence of low rents and property prices, an urban enterprise zone designation that offers various perks, landlords who have been willing to negotiate on leases, and, perhaps most powerfully, a shared desire to revive Asbury Park once and for all.