This is what “400 Lake at Asbury Park” will look like after the Toll Brothers get done. Developer’s brochure. Views of the Ocean, Ocean Grove, and Wesley Lake. Click once to enlarge all images.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net, Ocean Grove, NJ, USA, America the Beautiful. All mono photos by Paul Goldfinger. 2/15/25.
In recent years there has been a veritable explosion of condominium housing in Asbury Park, mostly in the south east area near the Ocean and the Cookman Avenue neighborhood known for fine dining.
It is the residential vista that is the most obvious and most important change that has occurred since A. Park was a dump in the 1990’s.
Yet it’s hard to pinpoint what Asbury will become in the future. Maybe it will look like Long Branch where the residential scene near the ocean is the most noticeable.
But the City of Asbury Park continues to come alive with the arts, music scene, and a reputation for good restaurants. The boardwalk is terrific with interesting businesses including restaurants, beach foods, and a variety of entertainment choices. Asbury’s Cookman shopping scene is struggling to define itself.
Yet there are parts of A. Park where there is poverty, racial segregation, drugs, crime and social degradation including homelessness. And there is a large, mostly poor Hispanic population, and Main Street has at least 6 Mexican restaurants and a rundown environment which one might avoid at night.
The segregation is socioeconomic based. If you go to Cookman Ave for dinner, you would see very few people of color.
The African-American population has been present for many years, and they are largely living in rundown neighborhoods, but there are impressive exceptions. The modern-day evolution of A. Park seems to have left this demographic largely behind.
Where can one find affordable housing is this burgeoning town?
In Ocean Grove we are well aware of the A. Park “explosion.” Since we have free parking, many drivers whose destination is A. Park leave their cars in the Grove, especially at our North End.
The Grove has become a “bedroom” community for those who like A. Park excitement while preferring the quietude of OG where there is a significant religious presence stemming from the OG Camp Meeting Association. And the two communities offer different life-styles, and visitors can literally walk in two directions and find two different worlds.
So there is that unique quality where a visitor or resident can leave one world while walking to the other–often on the boardwalk which both towns share.
Even the music is contrasting with rock and some jazz prevailing in the Park, while OG has a remarkable summer classical music schedule in addition to the religious based music in the Great Auditorium of Ocean Grove where the big hits are by Mozart, Handel, Rutter and other famous composers that you won’t hear in AP. And we have the famous Choir Festival.
And Blogfinger.net has music that you won’t hear in AP either. Check it out for our posts about Asbury.
In the summer A. Park offers a large assortment of music including the See, Hear Now Festival in September, bars with live music, jazz concerts. special events, and venues such as the Stone Pony. At their south end, a large music venue is planned for the space at the Casino.
From a demographic standpoint, there seems to be no shortage of buyers of expensive condominiums. These tend to be beautiful and very costly, and we think that many of the buyers are gays who often come from New York and use their AP homes as second homes. But, that aside, there are other groups who are discovering A.Park including well-to-do retirees and young visitors with spendable incomes.
However, it’s not actually clear as to why so many people want to own homes there. It’s hard to tell how many folks actually live in that new neighborhood year round because the city seems quiet in the winter, but it does come alive in summer.
And it’s not readily understandable why those extravagant homes sell so well, because other than summer, Asbury Park is largely a dreary place with little character or charm. If you fly a drone overhead you might be confused as to what the city of A. Park is actually about.
Here is a link to a Blogfinger post about people in need in town. Blogfinger.net.
We went over to the huge construction site in the City of Asbury Park at Wesley Lake, facing Ocean Grove, the lake, and the ocean. “400 Lake” will be a 62 unit complex by the Toll Brothers–quality developers. This will be a 2-4 bedroom fabulous townhouse development which will start at about $1 million. You might even be offered a 30 year fixed mortgage.
And 400 Lake will probably sell well despite all the condo construction that preceded it. This explosive growth has occurred while Ocean Grove’s North End remains a disgraceful dirt park.
Paul Goldfinger photo. This sprawling project, 400 Lake, involves Grand Ave, Cookman Ave, and Lake Avenue. 2/15/25
Time to pour cement at “400 Lake” . Paul Goldfinger photo 2/15/25. Click once to enlarge.
400 Lake is a work in progress, but developers in Asbury Park know what they are doing, so this will happen fast. Paul Goldfinger photo. Click once to enlarge. Blogfinger.net Ocean Grove.
RYAN GOSLING AND EMMA STONE. From the movie La La Land. “City of Stars.”