BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

The 30 properties now in the Beachfront South Redevelopment Zone in Long Branch will be replaced by five oceanfront buildings containing 352 condominium units, according to plans unveiled last week.

“This is just the concept,” Tom Bauer, a principal in the architectural firm of Melillo and Bauer, Point Pleasant, told the City Council at its Nov. 9 workshop meeting.

“There still needs to be further development. This is the direction we would like to go,” he said.

The plans call for designated developer K. Hovnanian, Middletown, to bulldoze the properties on the 12-acre zone that extends from Bath Avenue to Morris Avenue, between Ocean Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, and replace them with a $300 million project.

K. Hovnanian signed a preliminary developer’s agreement on Aug. 4, 2004, which included paying the city more than $13 million upon the signing of contracts to be designated as the developer of the zone, according to Mayor Adam Schneider. The money would be deposited in the city’s redevelopment fund.

“The presentation is gorgeous,” Michelle Bobrow, whose home in the redevelopment zone would be condemned as part of the project, said during the public portion of the council meeting that night.

“[The project] should be done on open land. We have questions about the ethics of those who would take and give away what is not theirs. The homes, properties and businesses are ours, not yours to give away.”

The plan calls for 352 units, ranging in sale price from $400,000 to more than $2.2 million, to be constructed in five mid-rise buildings.

The units will be a combination of one- to four-bedroom residences that will range in size from 1,350 to 3,530 square feet

The project will be constructed on three tracts of land: an 8-acre tract off North Bath Avenue, a 2-acre tract between Grauman Towers and Pavilion Avenue, and another 2-acre tract off Morris Avenue.

The 30 homes are scattered among the three tracts.

Two existing buildings, the Oceanpointe and Grauman Towers, which are senior citizen facilities, will remain at the site.

The 8-acre site will consist of three crescent-shaped buildings with 246 units. Each building will phase down from eight stories to four stories high as the building gets closer to the beach.

The project will also feature a clubhouse, pool, water wall, juice bar, patios for ground-level units, balconies for upper-level units, and a trellis structure bordering the ocean, to “create a window to the sea,” Bauer said.

“This building has 360 degrees of wonderful frontage,” Bauer said about the crescent shape of the buildings. “There is no back to this building.”

The site between Grauman Towers and the Pavilion will have one building with 38 units and “a very large greenscape area,” Bauer said.

“Sixty five percent of this site will remain unbuilt,” he said.

The site off Morris Avenue will consist of one linear-shaped building with 62 units and will include a swimming pool onsite.

All parking for the project will be enclosed in ground- and lower-level parking garages constructed under the projects, according to Bauer, who said there will be a total of 600 parking spots on-site.

“I think you did a great job, especially with the parking,” Mayor Adam Schneider said after the presentation. “I like it a lot. You did a really interesting job.”

Jeffrey A. Nadell, the director of urban opportunities, Northeast region, for K. Hovnanian, said at the meeting that the council had asked the developer to also work on the development of the boardwalk that extends for one mile at the site of the project.

Bauer presented a plan for the boardwalk that included widening the present 10-foot boardwalk to 20 feet, creating four gateways to the beachfront and constructing restrooms, concession buildings, beach offices, outdoor showers, beach storage, crosswalks, and accessibility for people with handicaps.

“What we have now is a boardwalk in poor condition,” Bauer said. “There are boards coming apart. It is unattractive and unsafe.”

In addition to widening the boardwalk, Bauer said plans call for a 10-foot-wide buffer of landscape between the boardwalk and Ocean Avenue to “protect the pedestrians.”

Two secondary gateways will be constructed at Cottage Avenue and Morris Avenue and will include a two-level comfort facility with restrooms, showers and storage.

The two primary gateways will be at Brighton and North Bath avenues and will include a concession building, restrooms and storage.