Applied Breaks Ground for $80M Redevelopment

Long Branch, not to be confused with Asbury Park, another struggling Jersey Shore city just 10 miles to the south, will actually get a series of projects out of the deal, with total investment pegged in the $95 million range. Asbury Park has its own redevelopment project in the works, but Long Branch got into the ground first with what Gov. James McGreevey terms "an example of how working in partnerships with local government and across state agencies can lead to success."

The $80 million Pier Village will encompass 315 market-rate rental apartments, 105 condo units, 100,000 sf of retail space and a small office component on 16 acres that once housed an amusement park. The project will be configured in a "village" format.

Other components will include a small oceanfront plaza, a rebuilt section of boardwalk, and a more pedestrian-friendly version of the six-lane Ocean Blvd. that passes in front of it. The first retail stores are expected to open in about a year, the first residences will be ready by late summer of 2003 and the fully-phased project is expected to be ready in about two years.

Pier Village is part of a larger redevelopment effort called Long Branch Tomorrow. As part of that, Applied will break ground later this year for some 350 luxury residences on 25 acres just to the north, according to the company's vice president Gregory Russo. To counterbalance that, Applied will team up with the D.R. Mon Group of Shrewsbury, NJ to build close to 90 low- and moderate-income residential units at various locations around the city.

The state's total ante for Pier Village is $11.2 million, according to Susan Bass Levin, commissioner of Community Affairs, who along with McGreevey and former governor James Florio attended the groundbreaking. "We're reviving a city, and more importantly, we're providing an alternative to sprawl."

Of that $11.2 million total, Levin's department is providing $4.3 million from its Downtown Living Program. Another $4.9 million is coming from the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency and the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority, both of which are affiliated with Community Affairs. Finally, the state DOT has committed $2 million of the $8 million budgeted for the Ocean Blvd. improvements.

Overall plans for Long Branch's oceanfront redevelopment were created by Thompson & Associates, who has had a hand in such projects as Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace.