RE-POST from 2015. Still relevant:
Old Salvation Army housing is being turned into a boutique hotel in Asbury Park. Prosper Bellizia photo, Blogfinger staff. April, 2015. ©
Is this the historic look that the HPC wants for the North End?* The CMA seems to want to re-create the good old days in the Grove and call it “historic.”
This space on the southern border of Asbury Park, across from Wesley Lake, will get condos in the future. Does Ocean Grove need to add more condos to the neighborhood? Isn’t AP more in need of “redevelopment” than we are? Blogfinger photo.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
If you were wondering what our new North End hotel might look like, better hope it doesn’t take shape like the one on top. The NERP calls for an 85 room hotel, but don’t worry—-remember that the HPC must approve the design. What? You don’t trust the HPC? Perhaps you are thinking about the Greek Temple on Main Avenue or about the new Mary’s Place which will take up two lots and look like a pseudo- Victorian building designed to fool the tourists.
Or perhaps it occurs to you that there are enough hotels in the neighborhood counting the one above, so maybe we don’t need another hotel in the Grove. Currently in Asbury Park there are 3 hotels: Berkley-Carteret, Tides, and Empress. In Ocean Grove we have Majestic, Shawmont, and Laingdon.
How about a nice park which we could call “Hotel Park” to remember the old North End Hotel which became useless in its time and was finally torn down in 1978.
Did you have a look at recently built condos in Ocean Grove (e.g. on Ocean Pathway) or in Asbury Park? What do you think?
Editor’s note March, 2021. We have posted the architects design* for the hotel and condos. It has a pseudo-Victorian look.
Historic zoning should not have permitted a hotel now at this site. Just because there was a hotel before in that vicinity does not mean that another one should be allowed. The 1911 hotel at the North End was demolished in 1978. Note that the Asbury Hotel has opened in the interim, while the Tides has closed.
JOE WILLIAMS From his album Music for Lovers
Take a look at the 27 Surf Avenue House. That was built to emulate a “historic” structure. As with the Ocean Pathway condos-they are what they are—- buildings that really have no architectural value since they look nothing like the originals. All those structures that have no historic value and are too far gone and costly to be rehabbed, unfortunately must go.
We would all like for a “fairy godmother” to come along and save them. A bigger problem lies with the variances given to the developers as to size etc. Back to economics.
There are some other issues related to the planned hotel, besides parking. One pertains to how the planners will handle egress and ingress. The OG roads nearby will not be able to handle the traffic congestion. They would need another road. How can that happen? They do consider Lake “Avenue” to be an actual street even though it is merely a walkway.
Are they plotting to turn Lake into an actual roadway? We will have to wait for the necessary traffic study down the road.
My View: Thank you for this excellent analysis. Regarding new homes that are made to look like authentic Victorians, it seems to me that the single family home efforts are done very well, but I wonder how successful larger buildings could be from a historic point of view, such as a hotel or a big condo structure or a Mary’s Place sort of building.
Can you point to a larger building in Ocean Grove that actually emulates a historic structure in an authentic way? I wonder how the experts who choose towns for the Register of Historic Places would view such buildings.
It’s ironic that you prefer the condos to the Albatross, because the designers of the HBO series “Boardwalk Empire” chose the Albatross to appear in a few scenes as a Prohibition era fine hotel where Nucky Thompson, a bootlegger tycoon, would choose to stay.
I thought they were going to give the Whitfield the wrecking ball last year. Believe HPC decided the building could be demolished. Does anyone know the current status of the Whitfield?
I think the condos at 30 Ocean Pathway are well done, the developers combined three Victorian era buildings in a sympathetic fashion. Had those buildings not been converted into condos, it’s quite possible that they would have be left to deteriorate as some others have. The economics of maintaining/improving buildings of that size and era are challenging to say the least. Many older buildings have haz-mat issues due to lead paint and old asbestos -very expensive to remediate.
If I contrast the Ocean Pathway condos to the adjacent Albatross B&B, I prefer the condos. The Albatross has crumbling paint, and only minimal annual maintenance is done. The owner tried to sell a few years ago unsuccessfully. The expenses of renovating a building of that size would likely preclude any return on investment. Instead you wind up with a deteriorating building with criminal activity. Case in point: The Whitfield: multiple drug overdoses and drug related deaths, convicted sex offenders in residence, neighbor’s complaints about prostitution etc.
To be fair, since the HPC requires all new construction to be in the Victorian style, it’s somewhat unavoidable that these structures look “ersatz”. Modern building materials, and contemporary code requirements both prevent a truly Victorian period structure. This is bound to offend certain people’s sense of aesthetics, but it’s unavoidable. Better an ersatz new Victorian then a 70’s era split level.
Just wondering what the occupancy rates for the hotels and B & B’s are in Ocean Grove. Seasonally I’d bet it’s pretty high, but what about the other 9 months of the year? 85 empty rooms for 3/4 of a year? Don’t see how it’s economically feasible. Plus the hotels in AP all have in-house bars and/or year-round nightlife close by.
Didn’t the CMA operate a motel at one time? How did that work out?