Jones Lang LaSalle


Hopes rise along with new buildings in Asbury

And not all the progress is on beachfront
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/13/06
BY NANCY SHIELDS
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU

ASBURY PARK — Like the rebuilding of a team, the progress the city was making in the first year or so of its comeback was hard to see.

There were still many negative stories, sad happenings. The old way of doing things in Asbury Park fought hard not to let go.

But five years later, officials and residents appear to have stayed the course, and reports of progress — more visible, more measurable — have been mounting.

"This is one of the most positive times we've had in the city, possibly in 30 or 40 years," Mayor Kevin Sanders said earlier this week. "New stores, restaurants, waterfront construction, restored houses throughout the city."

"The apathy is gone from Asbury Park," he said. "Everyone's talking about its appeal. They say Asbury Park is the new gold rush."

Last week, the City Council and its beachfront redeveloper announced a new agreement that requires Asbury Partners to invest $6 million in the next two years to renovate the Fifth Avenue Pavilion and make important exterior renovations to Convention Hall, the Casino and the power plant. Designs for the costly interior renovations of the boardwalk buildings must be completed by September 2007.

Although the City Council had seen progress with the new condominiums now visible on the waterfront, officials were concerned about the lack of investment to get permanent renovations under way on the historic buildings. The city and developer negotiated in February and March and say they now have time lines, financial requirements, penalties for nonperformance and an agreement to stay in close communication as the work progresses.

Leadership lauded

"I can't stress to you enough how important the leadership of the city is right now in making this happen," said Glenn Scotland, a city redevelopment attorney. "This is probably only the second time in my career where we had public officials stand up, take a position and be willing to stick by it under the enormous economic pressure being placed on them by the developer.

"It is such a delicate balance to extract what is the proper equity in a deal and to recognize we want to be strong, treated fairly, but don't want the deal to go away," Scotland said of the negotiations. "And we compliment Asbury Partners on their willingness to go through this. It's very difficult to change a paradigm, especially in the business world . . . They stepped up big time."

Late last week, Metro Homes, the third developer brought in by Asbury Partners and the city to build waterfront condominiums, announced that C-8, the steel skeleton that became a symbol of the failed redevelopment all through the 1990s, will be imploded April 29. A new 224-unit condominium high rise, the Esperanza, is planned for the site.

Some officials and residents are talking about making the long-awaited demolition a celebratory event.

In the midst of the waterfront activity, downtown merchant Clark Mitchell, 37, co-owner of the Be Green vegetarian cafe on Cookman Avenue, said he has some reservations over the pace of redevelopment.

"With all the redevelopment, I think we just have a wait-and-see attitude," Mitchell said. "We don't want to get too excited about it."

"The downtown has problems — a parking problem — but there are a lot of good people putting good businesses here," he said. "All the downtown needs really is more — more businesses."

But for himself, he said he could not be happier with the restaurant he moved from Belmar in 2004.

"I do well here," Mitchell said. "All anyone wants here is progress. If it looks like it's going forward, it doesn't have to have been done yesterday."

Council members, led by Councilman Ed Johnson, are working at the committee level to develop plans to return Springwood Avenue to a commercial and residential thoroughfare and make needed improvements to the city train station on Main Street.

Other city concerns

Redevelopment isn't the only issue in the city.

A second event planned for April 29 is a hope and empowerment rally for city children which will start at 12:30 p.m. at Springwood Avenue and Memorial Drive. A march is planned to a recreation area between the Bangs Avenue School and the Middle School, where a youth talent expo, games and other activities will be held. There will be opportunities for young people to register for summer jobs.

As for the school district, which will see four people elected to its nine-member school board Tuesday, member Frank D'Alessandro, who is not up for re-election this year, believes the district "finally has stability."

"We're building on stability, brick by brick," D'Alessandro said. "Our district has fallen into the depths, and we're trying to lift everyone out. It's taking time. We haven't performed any miracles. But we have a foundation and what we needed more than anything was stability."

And within the Police Department, officers say their department has united under the new leadership of Deputy Chief Mark Kinmon. The officers' Police Athletic League joined the city in starting up a biddy basketball league for 60 third- to fifth-graders and plans to build on that program's success.

Police Inspector Chris Van Buren, the PAL president, said PAL is working on starting up an amateur boxing program for teenagers and young adults and may lease second-floor space in the former YMCA building on Main Street, now owned by REI Group.

"There's a room on the second floor that we're looking at that's perfect for what we want to do," Van Buren said. "The REI group gave us a lease which our attorney is reviewing. We're trying to tighten it up so that if they happen to sell the building, we'll have a leg to stand on. We want to be able to negotiate with the new owner if it happens."

But, Van Buren added, "this program will definitely happen."

Police also are working with a new community group that met last week after a peace rally was held on DeWitt Avenue to try to end gang violence that saw one young man shot to death on DeWitt Avenue in November and a second young man killed almost on the same spot late in March.

"As far as I see right now, because of what's going on — the events organized for youth and biddy basketball and PAL — I think things are turning around for children in Asbury," said Denise Richardson, the mother of seven daughters, who owns a home with her husband, Carl Richardson, on Ridge Avenue and is an administrative clerk in the Monmouth County Health Department. "My 7-year-old was a mascot before and is going to be a cheerleader this year for Pop Warner," she said.