March 1, 2018. 60 Main Avenue in Ocean Grove. Blogfinger photo ©

60 Main Avenue Ocean Grove . March 1, 2018. Blogfinger photo ©

By Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor @Blogfinger.net

Things couldn’t be bleaker—in fact, let’s rename Main Avenue in Ocean Grove  “Bleaker Street”  It’s March one, 2018, and most of the downtown is closed to traffic due to ongoing water-main work.  But that will be temporary, however the continuing downward slide of the Main Avenue businesses continues.

Favorite Things is up for sale.  Recently abandoned businesses at the brick pizza building have “for rent ” signs out including the shops that used to house the Pet Boutique, DJ’s grocery,  and DJ’s Pizza Shoppe.  April Cornell will move to Spring Lake this spring.  Sea View Sweets  at 56 Main Ave. has also  closed.

The word is that significantly higher rents at #60 Main Avenue, in the brick building owned by Asbury Park-NYC Sackman Enterprises, has forced those businesses out. Evidently this elite developer  believes that OG will be the next Asbury Park, and the prices reflect that.  Imagine, it is cheaper to rent a shop in Spring Lake than in OG.

Favorite Things, a fine shop, is still open among a bunch of core successful operations including Sea Grass, Nagles, the Emporium, Comfort Zone, Trading Company, Gifts by Tina, Purple Zebra,  OG Hardware, Cheese on Main, and Gingerbreads.  The OG bakery seems to be doing well and offers a nice selection of coffee drinks. As you all know, we have no actual coffee shop in town—a worrisome situation.

Some businesses are not listed here among the “core successful” retail operations because they are new and unproven and have yet to establish a demonstrable track record. Any business could have success here, but it needs the means to get through the winters and to stay in town for the long term.

The Chamber of Commerce has never spoken of a retail master plan for shops in the Grove, and maybe that would be desirable to help guide investors and produce a theme that would define our commercial district.

As for the realtors in town, we spoke to one prominent realtor who is very optimistic about Ocean Grove’s future and he believes that all those empty stores will be rented. Currently we are in a “down turn” in the down town, but he sees this as a temporary situation,  and he points to the fired-up real estate housing market in OG as indicative of  good things to come.

Osteria at #50 Main Avenue (R) has just opened. Next door is a yoga/meditation/aroma therapy shop. Blogfinger photo.

A new Italian restaurant has recently opened at  #50 Main Avenue  (the new white building—-suite #4).  It is called Osteria Procaccini.

After you look at their website and read the menu, you may jump up and down and yell, “WOW!”   It probably will be a big hit here, but, it  might attract even more tourists  (remember when Moonstruck was on Main Ave?) and, of course, the new building at #50 Main offers ZERO new parking.

Hopefully the Osteria will be a source of added light where more light is needed.  Preliminary reports say that the food there is  good  if not “a bit pricey.”

The downtown needs an injection of life.  It needs quality businesses and it needs to retain stores like April Cornell. Their leaving is a big loss for the downtown in terms of the vision for OG’s shops and for the town in general.

RUBY BRAFF AND DICK HYMAN   “High Society” from their album America the Beautiful.

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