Makeover Continues At City Beachfront
By GARRETT STASSE and JOANNE PAPAIANNI
 Coaster Photo: Shrubs have been added to Bradley Park in front of Convention Hall in Asbury Park. |
The boardwalk in Asbury Park is promising to be a busy place this season with almost 25 retailers who have signed letters of intent to rent space.
And this week the Planning Board gave the green light to several new additions at the beachfront including a volleyball court and new sets of stairs for access to Convention Hall from the beach.
Courtney Johnson, a representative of Madison Marquette, the city’s beachfront developer who is coordinating the entertainment and retail at the beachfront, said the company is “excited and thrilled” with the retailers who have said they will open businesses this summer.
“It’s an incredible mix of retail,” she said, although she added it is premature to announce specific names for new businesses before city approval is given.
All but three of the businesses will open from both the Ocean Avenue and boardwalk sides.
In January, Madison Marquette announced Tim McLoone will operate a restaurant at the Howard Johnson building, Russell Lewis of Baker Boys in Ocean Grove will open a lounge offering food and cocktails at the First Avenue Pavilion and Marilyn Schlossbach of Market in the Middle will open a Mexican type restaurant on the boardwalk.
Meanwhile, the section of the Casino where the carousel once stood is scheduled to be an area where events can be held.
In addition, sets of stairs will be added to Convention Hall to bring beachgoers to the retail operations scheduled on the promenades.
Three temporary parking lots were also approved, one near the carousel, one near the Wonder Bar site and the third in between. They are to be there for five years.
The board also approved plans to add an outside deck and bar near the Wonder Bar site at Fifth Avenue with a regulation-sized beach volleyball court.
The company’s lawyer, Steven Tombalakian of Sills, Cummis and Gross, Newark, asked the board to delay a hearing on temporary kiosks on open spaces along the boardwalk. He said plans remain to be finalized and requested another hearing when the plans are ready to be presented.
The carousel house is going to be “an open meeting space with a wall between it and the casino with gates in the existing door frames,” architect Samuel Harris said. Temporary lighting will be installed in the ceiling until the ceiling is restored, which would qualify the building for the state historic sites registry.
The roundels, those round circular decorative pieces with the Medusa head in the middle, are being restored. The one that was stolen several years ago is being replicated, he said.
The state Historic Preservation Commission has approved the project, including the copper-colored aluminum roof and the copper-sheet-sheathed cupola, he said.
Harris was passionate about the bright lights.
“When you approach it at night and it’s all lit up it’s going to be spectacular, he said.
At Convention Hall there will be two sets of stairs, each 15 feet wide each, from the beach to the northern and southern promenades. Stores would be open on both.
 Coaster Photo The First Avenue Pavilion on the Asbury Park boardwalk, which once housed the city’s Senior Center and more recently an amusement arcade and sunglass and jewelry store, has been gutted. |
 Coaster Photo Renovation work has begun on the Second Avenue Pavilion on the city boardwalk. |
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March 27th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
The progress in Asbury Park is positively Sisyphean. I applaud McLoone, Schlossbach, et al. for investing in the boardwalk. Madison Marquette is to be commended for driving interest and confidence in the oceanfront. That said, it seems every accomplishment comes with a requisite head scratcher (if not head banger). If you are bothering to restore the carousel house to get the historic status, why not do it right and replace the carousel? I know the original is in use in Myrtle Beach (thank goodness), but you could easily commission a new one. Meeting space? The place for meeting space is a new hotel, which is what should have gone up where the Esperanza was supposed to have gone up. I understand the desire to get things moving in an area that’s been stagnant for decades, but I don’t see how stifling common sense expedites the process. Would it really take that much longer to build a new carousel?
Happy to hear about the volleyball courts. Hope it doesn’t turn into Bar A north.
April 1st, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Convention Hall is sinking! (just look at the first picture)