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