Aug. 24--The soup-can water towers of Campbell Soup Co. that for a century have dotted Camden's skyline have been a symbol of the company's presence, even as other corporate citizens fled the city or closed.

But now the historic plant on the site where Campbell was founded in 1869 has become obsolete and will be shut next summer.

"Yes, it hurts. Yes, we will recover," Camden Mayor Randy Primas said yesterday after the company announced the shutdown.

Indeed, city fathers, corporate boosters and Campbell officials said the closing did not minimize the company's commitment to the City Invincible.

Nor does the decision jeopardize the city's $500 million waterfront development project -- of which Campbell's $35 million world headquarters is an anchor.

In addition, they said, the 16 acres the plant occupies on Market and Front Streets is prime for further development.

Jim Wallace, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey, said the waterfront project -- which includes a state aquarium, a hotel and eight office buildings -- remained on schedule.

But city officials acknowledged that the loss of the plant's 940 jobs -- about a third affecting Camden residents -- would have an immediate effect on the city, where 16 percent of the population is unemployed.

"That's hard to absorb," said Thomas P. Corcoran, executive director of the Cooper's Ferry Development Association, which oversees the city's waterfront development. "You can't minimize the impact on the workers and their families."

Campbell officials said that about a third of the 940 employees are eligible for early retirement and that the company intends to negotiate with union officials for transfers, alternative job training, job placement and severance pay and other benefits.

Economic analysts said plant employees would have trouble finding work with comparable salaries and benefits because Camden County's manufacturing sector is not expanding -- despite a low unemployment rate of 3.3 percent.

"It's unlikely they'll be able to find as good an employer as Campbell Soup," said Thomas P. Hamer, director of the Center for Economic Data Analysis at Glassboro State College.

Bob McHugh, a spokesman for Gov. Kean, said the state Commerce and Labor Departments were considering establishing a plant-closing team to assist Campbell workers with unemployment benefits.

Camden County Freeholder Director Robert E. Andrews said the county-administered Job Training Partnership Act program would offer job-training and placement services to Campbell workers, possibly with federal funds.