The proposed Onada Surf Club in Long Branch. Photo from the APP 1/21/25. This view is from a fishing boat at the Long Branch beachfront.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net
You all are familiar with Pier Village in Long Branch. The developer there is the Kushner Co. which has planned another development at the Long Branch beachfront nearby which is called the Onada Surf Club and which includes beach front condos, apartments, a hotel, restaurants, and other amenities including an outdoor pool and a covered parking garage.
This Long Branch project area of development received favorable zoning in 1996 when it was accepted as a Zone in Need of Redevelopment because Long Branch’s beachfront was considered in need of “revitalization.”
Now the developer has told the town that it wants to cancel the hotel for financial reasons and to instead build more luxury condominiums in the 8 story project. The idea will be presented on 1/22/25 to the Mayor and Council, and if they agree, a new redevelopers agreement will be granted.
Then Kushner would have to go back to the planning board for site plan approval. This information is from the APP today, written by Dan Radel.
This redevelopment designation is the same as the CMA received when the North End of OG was also declared a Redevelopment Zone in 2007, even though that decision was probably illegal in our opinion. (Blogfinger and others.)
According to the Neptune lawyer, OGNED could decide to nix the OG hotel which is part of the North End project and instead put up more condos. This would not be desirable from the perspective of Ocean Grove’s Master Plan and the people of OG.
So far, OGNED has made no such request, but the Long Branch request noted above makes us wonder. After all, The Asbury is a fairly new hotel which is quite successful and which is a stone’s throw away from the planned OG hotel. And of course there are Air bnb’s which are blossoming in Ocean Grove, so is the OGNED hotel really a good idea?
ANSEL ELGORT from the latest movie version of West Side Story by Steven Spielberg.