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REPRINTED WITH PERMISSON OF THE ASBURY PARK PRESS -        A GANNETT  PUBLICATION

July 6, 2008

ASBURY PARK BOARDWALK SPRINGING TO LIFE

By SHANNON MULLEN
STAFF WRITER

There’s a real buzz these days about a new show featuring a group of imaginative designers and swarms of construction workers racing against the clock.

Call it “Extreme Makeover: Boardwalk Edition.”

People have been watching it for months now, ever since the redevelopers of the city’s oceanfront, reacting to the downturn in the real estate market, shifted their focus from luxury condos to a fast-track revitalization of Asbury Park’s famed boardwalk.

“We’ve accelerated probably a three-year project into six months,” said Gary Mottola, managing partner of Madison Asbury Retail, the joint venture between Asbury Partners and marketing firm Madison Marquette that’s spearheading entertainment and retail development along the mile-long boardwalk.

The work is progressing, and new businesses are opening even though the city and the developers have yet to sign a new redeveloper agreement, which was supposed to be in place before the new venues came on line.

While negotiations continue, hard hats are everywhere. Workers are transforming the boardwalk’s dilapidated pavilions into dramatic new spaces to house dozens of upscale restaurants, bars, boutiques and other year-round businesses. They’re striping new, freshly paved parking lots throughout the oceanfront area, and rolling out the green carpet for a new miniature golf course at Third Avenue that opens this weekend. They’re digging up and replacing old pipes and utility lines, bulldozing blighted buildings near the boardwalk and restoring the copper ships, plaster mermaids and sea monsters adorning the Convention Hall-Paramount Theatre complex, part of an ongoing, multimillion dollar upgrade of the long-neglected historic landmark.

“It’s gorgeous,” said Janice Cunningham of Philadelphia as she took in the view of the building’s exterior from the outdoor balcony on the second floor of the Paramount Theatre, prior to a sold-out concert by Tony Bennett June 28. Surveying the bustling boardwalk panorama below her, she said that after years of eyeing a condo here, “I’m ready to invest.”

For years, backers of the city’s ambitious redevelopment plans have hung their hopes on the adage, “If you build it, they will come.” They’re encouraged that even while the hammering, sawing, painting and digging is still going on, lots of people are coming to the boardwalk.

“As each business opens, it’s just getting busier and busier,” said Greg LaPlaca, a potter, who opened his 2,600-square-foot gallery and workshop, called LaPlaca Pottery Works, in the renovated Fifth Avenue Pavilion on June 20. The next day, he was still doing a brisk business at 1 a.m. when he decided to call it a night. “I was just tired,” he said.

Business is also heating up next door at Hot Sand, a glass-blowing studio now in its second summer on the boardwalk. The night of June 28, a dozen or more people gathered in the studio to watch as co-owner Paul Elyseev heated a blob of molten glass to 2,100 degrees, then carefully poured the flaming liquid into a sand impression of the handprints of sisters Margaux, Stephanie and Julia Winchock, ages 10, 7, and 4, of Bridgewater.

“Oh, man, you see the parking lot? It’s unbelievable,” Elyseev, his brow beaded in sweat, said afterward, gesturing toward crowded Ocean Avenue. “And the cars? It’s all high-end luxury cars.”

To be sure, at least a few hundred of those luxury cars belonged to ticket-holders to the Tony Bennett concert, which benefited the Boys & Girls Club of Monmouth County. The presence of such an iconic entertainer here, though, testified to the marketing muscle that Madison Marquette has brought to the redevelopment effort. (The next big act: Bob Dylan, coming to Convention Hall Aug. 13.) And even after Bennett took the stage, shortly after 8 p.m., the boardwalk remained crowded.

Bennett’s show wasn’t the only attraction that night. A few blocks away, The Stone Pony nightclub was jammed for a big outdoor rock concert, and a weekend jazz festival was just letting out across town — emblematic of the diverse, multivenue synergy the city and its developers hope to sustain year-round, not just during the summer months.

Gradually, the number of nightlife options is expanding along the boardwalk, though not as rapidly as some would like.

That Saturday night, shoppers browsed the not-quite unpacked Asbury Galleria in the Third Avenue Pavilion and sought relief from the heat at the new Eddie Confetti ice-cream shop in the renovated Fifth Avenue Pavilion. Next door, diners had to wait for an outdoor table at the Salt Water Beach Cafe, which occupies the former home of New Jersey’s last Howard Johnson’s restaurant. Upstairs, Tim McLoone’s Supper Club, an upscale nightclub, was celebrating its opening night, and O’Toole’s Irish Pub, a new bar inside the arcade area between the Paramount Theatre and Convention Hall, where Biggie’s Clam Bar, the Baker Boys bakery and several other businesses have yet to open, was coming to life.

At The Beach Bar, a trendy open-air lounge on the veranda along the south side of Convention Hall, Brian and Maureen Madigan of Verona, who were renting a house in Bradley Beach, were enjoying cocktails as their three young daughters played nearby on a bed-like cushioned platform.

“I love it; it’s great,” their father said of the atmosphere. On the beach nearby, a group of young men tossed a football and several spirited volleyball matches were under way.

Meanwhile, the city’s two mounted police officers were posted at the southeast corner of Bradley Park, opposite the Convention Hall complex, and other officers quietly patroled the boardwalk.

“Everyone was cool; there were no incidents,” City Manager Terence Reidy, who visited the boardwalk that night, said afterward.

The boardwalk has seen large crowds in recent summers, Reidy noted, but the expectations are higher this year. One positive indicator: Beach badge sales are up about 25 percent, he said.

“Of course we’d like to see more things open sooner, but they’re coming along,” Reidy said of the progress on the boardwalk. “We’ve had inspectors out every day making sure businesses can open up as soon as they’re ready.”

So far, because of the absence of a new redeveloper agreement, the city has granted only temporary certificates of occupancy to the new boardwalk businesses that will allow them to stay open through Sept. 15. Other recent openings include Brielle Cyclery, the Style Rocket fashion boutique and the Shore Fitness gym.

Biggie’s Clam Bar, which was still under construction this past week, was trying to open this weekend, too, but Reidy wasn’t sure its operators could get their approvals in time. On the southern end of the boardwalk, a few of the retail shops in the First Avenue Pavilion, which is still being renovated, could open in the coming days, as well, Reidy said, but the upscale nightclub and restaurant that will anchor the pavilion, designed by well-known architect David Rockwell, aren’t finished.

Rockwell also designed the white “pods,” constructed from corrugated steel shipping containers, that have sprouted along the boardwalk this summer to house smaller businesses such as Renzo’s Cookie Pie.

Talk about fast track: Owner Chris Renzo, whose signature product is a quarter-pound oatmeal cookie “stuffed with all kinds of fun fillings,” only began painting the interior of his then-empty pod on Tuesday, but he hoped to be up and running this weekend, adding one more flavor to the boardwalk’s evolving batter.