Heating Plant at the Asbury Boardwalk near the border with Ocean Grove. Paul Goldfinger photo 2015 ©
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net
In a front page unsigned article today, the Coaster reports that the Asbury Park City Council was surprised by some developers who presented a plan for a “60,000 square-foot mixed hospitality center with a liquor license.” ( Let’s call it the “MHC.”)
The MHC would occupy a renovated Heating Plant which is at the Asbury Park boardwalk near Ocean Grove’s north border and would be adjacent to the OGNED OG North End Planned development..
Details are not available, but A. Park officials have their noses out of joint because of this sneak announcement.
Who knows what a “mixed hospitality center” actually is, but whatever it is , it will likely impact parking and crowding at the proposed OG North End project. Perhaps the traffic and parking studies (which were supposed to be done for the North End Plan) should be re-evaluated.
Everything is speculation right now, but maybe the new OG Hotel, which will not serve or sell alcohol, will make a deal with the MHC for take out alcoholic beverages. And how will this project impact OG condo sales and retail at the OG North End?
At the very least, it indicates how vulnerable the OGNED North End Project in Ocean Grove will be to whatever eventually goes up at Asbury’s south end. We have previously nicknamed our North End project as “Asbury Park South,” and here we have a taste of that risk.
Here is our prior post about the Heating Plant. Blogfinger.net 2015.
The plant was powered by bunker oil. One of, if not the most toxic and corrosive fuels used. You can still see the effects on the exterior of the stack all these years later. Clean up and remediation costs will be massive.
I seriously doubt that water was taken from Wesley Lake to make steam. Based on my experience with an apartment complex in Queens, boiler water needs to be pure and then have chemicals added to it to prevent corrosion to the exteriors of the boiler tubes. These carry hot combustion gases to heat the water in a tank. The water is reused in cycles and is not dumped except during boiler cleaning. For many years, sewage, etc. was dumped into the ocean. The Steam Plant would likely require remediation for asbestos and oil spillage if that has not already been done. Much of the stonework has been loose and unsafe.