City OKs redevelopment agreement with Ocean Place By ALEX BIESE |
| LONG BRANCH — The City Council unanimously passed a resolution authorizing the execution of a redevelopment agreement between the city and a development company planning a $500 million mixed-use project around the Ocean Place Resort and Spa. The developer also could help rebuild the city's famous pier. "It's a huge step," Mayor Adam Schneider said following Tuesday night's meeting. "It's always been a goal to get the pier rebuilt and now we're a lot closer to that. We still have a lot of work to do, but it's a big hurdle we just cleared." The hotel's owner, Ocean Place Development LLC, a partnership of Orr Partners LLC and Tiburon Capital LLC, proposed to redevelop its oceanfront site with 60 additional hotel rooms, a second hotel tower with 200 condo-hotel units for occupancy and rental, 275 condominiums, 250,000 square feet of retail space, 100,000 square feet of office space and parking garages for 2,300 vehicles, said Orr Partners President David L. Orr during a presentation at the meeting. The project involves demolishing the present conference center. With proposed features including a movie theater, a bowling alley and national retailers, Orr said more than 1,500 jobs are expected to be created in hospitality, retail and professional offices. "We really want Ocean Place to be a year-round destination," he said. During the presentation, project architect Bill Hellmuth, with Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum, said the new facilities will provide visitors to Long Branch with things to do in the area once they get off of the beach. "If you're like me, you get tired of the beach after a couple of hours and you want to go do other things," he said. Pier, ferry service The agreement between the city and Ocean Place Development LLC calls for the developer to provide specific givebacks to the city, including a $20 million contribution toward both reconstruction of the city's pier and bringing in ferry service. Schneider said it could cost between $20 million and $60 million to reconstruct the pier, which burned down in 1987, and that the city is negotiating with other developers as well as the state and federal governments to cover the rest of the cost. "We've always known the money would have to come from more than one source," Schneider said. Council President Michael DeStefano said that along with ferry service to New York, the pier would also be used fishing, concerts and other recreational activities. While Orr said in the presentation that all of the land for the 18-acre project was already owned by the developer and no property would have to be taken by eminent domain, some residents who attended the meeting disagreed. "Directly, they haven't (used eminent domain) but indirectly they have," said Lori Ann Vendetti, citing Abbottsford Avenue, a city street running parallel to Ocean Boulevard in the city's hotel/campus zone, one of four waterfront areas in the city's ambitious but controversial redevelopment plan. Vendetti said the city acquired property on the street using eminent domain last year and then sold it to the developer. When reached for comment Tuesday night following the meeting, she said, "Eminent domain was used and I just didn't like the terminology that the developer used." Vendetti said she felt the project involves too many stores and not enough areas for family activities. "I think there should be more recreation for kids and families," she said. "Long Branch is becoming this destination for yuppies, basically." Favorable reactions However, other residents at the meeting reacted positively to the plan. "I think this is just what Long Branch needs," said Joseph Acerra, a member of Carpenters Local Union 2250 in Red Bank, who asked that union labor be used in the construction. While voting in favor of the resolution, Councilman Anthony Giordano said, "I think this project, going forward, is going to be a signature project for not only Long Branch, but for Monmouth County and the state of New Jersey." Orr said the next step will be to move "full-steam ahead" working on schematic designs, design development and construction documents for the first phase. He said he plans to submit construction documents to the Planning Board within the next six months. Orr said the plan is to break ground around next April and the project will take five to seven years to complete. |
