Greetings from Asbury Park - Tom Gilmour Director of Commerce + Good Times 9/7/08
Thursday, September 4th, 2008News
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Asbury Park is Breathtaking says NJ Secretary of State
By NANCY SHIELDS, COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU Asbury Park Press
"The changes are just breathtaking," said Secretary of State Wells, a lawyer who lives in Livingston and is responsible for promoting and preserving the history, arts and culture of the state. "A lot of people don't know how great it is."
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Greetings from Asbury Park - Tom Gilmour Director of Commerce + Good Times 8/28/08
Friday, August 29th, 2008News
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Greetings from Asbury Park - Tom Gilmour Director of Commerce + Good Times 8/21/08
Thursday, August 21st, 2008News
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Greetings from Asbury Park - Tom Gilmour Director of Commerce + Good Times 8/14/08
Thursday, August 21st, 2008News
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Conover Agent Susan McCarthy Helps Cabaret on City Boardwalk
Thursday, August 14th, 2008News
Piano man Bob Egan of Asbury Park performs
REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF THE COASTER NEWSPAPER August 14, 2008
By ED SALVAS
Planning a special occasion or corporate event and want to liven it up with entertainment? Call Bob Egan.
As the owner of Bob Egan Entertainment, a company he founded 21 years ago in New Hope, Pa., Egan has been booking speciality acts for all types of events and has a Rolodex filled with the names of singers, pianists, violin players, bagpipers, a harpist and even an Elvis Impersonator. His clients work throughout New Jersey, as well as in the New York area and Philadelphia.
Since 2004, Egan has owned a condo in Asbury Park and now divides his time between the city and his headquarters in New Hope.
 Asbury Park resident Bob Egan is well known at Moonstruck in Asbury Park where he performs regularly. He also performs at Tim McLoone’s Supper Club on the boardwalk. |
Since 2005 he’s been playing the piano and hosting a Sunday open mic show twice a month at Moonstruck in Asbury Park. He recently signed on to handle bookings and host a monthly “Cabaret Night” at Tim McLoone’s Supper Club on the boardwalk.
Egan, a native of Bucks County, Pa., was playing the piano at clubs in that area and was frequently asked to recommend someone for a special event, wedding or party. He soon realized that people were making money thanks to his referral, so he decided to cut himself in and founded Bob Egan Entertainment.
“I find them and Rolodex them,” is how he describes the business.
In 1987, Egan started what would become a fixture in the tri-state area, the Cabaret at Odette’s, a restaurant and club in New Hope. His regular Cabaret shows at Odette’s soon attracted a large following among both the public and Cabaret performers. Odette’s closed its doors for good in June of 2006 after being flooded by the Delaware River for the third time in 20 months. Egan says plans are underway to resurrect Odette’s at a new, higher location in New Hope, and he hopes it will reopen in 2010.
During its nearly 20-year run, Odette’s featured many of the top Cabaret performers in the country, according to Egan. The list of performers appearing at Odette’s reads like a “who’s who” of Cabaret.
“Nancy LaMott, Carol Lawrence, Rosalyn Kind, Sam Harris, Morgana King, Hildegarde, Maureen McGovern, Karen Akers, Margaret Whiting, Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway,” Egan says. “It was such a great time. I had all the best and favorites of mine there. If I could have added Barbara Cook to the list, I could die and go to heaven, but that one was always a dream.”
Egan is hoping to continue the tradition at Tim McLoone’s Supper Club which recently opened on the boardwalk in Asbury Park in the space above the former Howard Johnson’s. After buying his Asbury Park condo in 2004, Egan says he would frequently walk the boardwalk and point to the HoJo’s and say “that’s the perfect place for a cabaret.”
His real estate agent, Susan McCarthy of the Conover Agency, heard about McLoone’s plans and suggested the two men meet.
Egan says when he and McLoone finally did meet, McLoone told him that many people in the business had told him to “talk to Bob Egan.”
The cabaret as an entertainment form has been around for decades and is typically a variety show featuring a mix of Broadway show tunes, popular standards, jazz, classical and even opera.
A recent cabaret night at McLoone’s featured entertainers from throughout central New Jersey and Philadelphia, and some local artists, including Amanda Conn-Levin of Tinton Falls, Tom Chiola, whose family lives in Neptune, and 22 year old jazz singer Chelsea Palermo of Rumson. Three talented members of the club’s wait staff formed an act called the “Supper Club Serenaders.” Julie Stanford, Jenny McDowell and Reuben Nagy, opened the show and also performed individually during the evening.
Bob Egan has recorded three solo piano CD’s. “On My Own,” and “Circle of Friends” feature Broadway show tunes, songs from the movies and popular standards, and “12/25,” is an album of Holiday favorites. He says the Supper Club Cabaret as been very well received and he’s excited about the city’s future now that redevelopment is well underway, and says there’s room for all types of entertainment. He notes that on a recent Saturday night, there was a cabaret show at the Supper Club, a performance of the opera “Carmen” by the Metro Lyric Opera at the Paramount Theater, and a group performing Beatles songs on the beach. For non-music lovers, there was also Roller Derby at Convention Hall.
In addition to his Asbury Park shows, Egan can be found every Monday at the Stockton Inn in Stockton, at the Bernards Inn in Bernardsville on Wednesday, and at Bowman’s Tavern in New Hope, Pa. on Friday.
Asbury Park changes are Breathtaking says NJ Secretary of State
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008News
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REPRINTED COURTESY OF THE ASBURY PARK PRESS & GANNETT CO> NEWSPAPERS
Take her at her word. Wells said she came to the city Monday because it had been a few years since she was in Asbury Park and wanted to see for herself what people are talking about. Gilmour took Wells and Nancy Byrne, executive director of the New Jersey Office of Travel and Tourism, on a tour of Madison Marquette’s renovated Convention Hall, Paramount Theatre, boardwalk shops and restaurants, the city’s boardwalk and and its beach, as well as the downtown Cookman Avenue restaurants and stores, The Griffin condominium and office building, and Market in the Middle, where they ate lunch. “The changes are just breathtaking,” said Wells, a lawyer who lives in Livingston and is responsible for promoting and preserving the history, arts and culture of the state. “A lot of people don’t know how great it is.” “It’s like being in a New York City neighborhood but on the ocean,” said Byrne, who lives in Red Bank and is about to move to Oceanport. Wells said she is promoting tourism at the shore “and Asbury Park, in particular, because the transformation is incredible.” Travel and tourism bring $38 billion into the state, she said. One out of nine jobs is travel- and tourism-related. “I’m encouraging our residents to stay in New Jersey,” Wells said. “You don’t need to go anywhere else when you have all this.” On a visit to Posh Den, which is showing Timothy White’s celebrity photographs until the store’s artifacts and home furnishings arrive, store partner Ray Werts said he has been in Asbury Park for eight years. He is one of the many members of the gay community who came to Asbury to invest in the city and help to rebuild it. The past weekend featured a large gay and lesbian presence with the seventh annual Road Trip parties, he said, but at the same time, he saw a strong family presence on the boardwalk, which gave him great satisfaction. “Seeing the families come down — that’s a sign the gay community did what it was supposed to do,” Werts said. “We tried to create buzz the last five years, but this is our summer,” Gilmour told Wells. “It’s one of the most special boardwalks, I think, in all of New Jersey,” Wells said. Downtown, Marianne Schell, a real estate agent with the John C. Conover Agency, gave the state visitors a tour of the the Griffin building, which has 21 residences on Cookman starting at $449,000. The building, owned by RDR Properties, also will house the first new bank in the city in decades. Rumson-Fair Haven Bank and Trust Co. soon will move in new furniture for Community Bank of Asbury Park. “It’s great to have someone with such a wide perspective get so excited about Asbury Park,” Schell said of Wells’ visit. “I think she was totally genuine.” |
ASBURY PARK: Reborn and rediscovered
Monday, July 7th, 2008News
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.
Asbury Park Pooch Wins at Westminster
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008News
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REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE ASBURY PARK PRESS - A GANNET NEWSPAPER
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He was already a celebrity in downtown Asbury Park, and now Jake the greyhound has gone national.
The 3-year-old greyhound-in-residence at Asbury Bark, a pet boutique at 535 Bangs Ave., represented his breed in the hound group competition Monday night during the live national television broadcast of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden.
Alas, he didn’t win — heavily favored Uno, the nation’s No. 1 large beagle, did, advancing to tonight’s Best in Show competition — but he distinguished himself just the same, having emerged as Westminster’s best greyhound earlier in the day Monday, besting seven other dogs.
“He beat the top greyhound in the country,” his co-owner Jeff Winton, 50, said after the breed judging. “He showed really well. He loves life. He’s always walking up and down Cookman Avenue.”
Winton’s partner, Jim Modica, 51, opened Asbury Bark three years ago. The couple own a house on Fourth Avenue in Asbury Park as well as a 7-acre farm in Long Valley, Morris County.
“So he’s got the best of both worlds,” Winton said, referring to Jake’s love of romping in the countryside and running along the boardwalk.
Modica and Winton, who also showed a whippet named Matthew on Monday, have shown dogs for the past 17 years and have competed at Westminster at least seven times previously, but Jake was the first to win best of breed. He won best of opposite sex in the greyhound competition at Westminster last year.
Modica and Winton co-own Jake with Vanessa Weber of Connecticut.
After the breed judging, Jake, whose official name is Ch. Classic Field of Dreams, took a well-deserved snooze in his crate in the benching area in the lower level of Madison Square Garden, while Winton accepted congratulations and Modica called friends and customers on his cell phone to spread the good news.
“I’m thrilled,” Modica said. “He walked in the ring, his tail was wagging, his head was up. He loves it.”
Jake’s win propelled him to the hound group final, where he was up against 25 other best-of-breeds winners, including Link, a smooth-haired standard dachshund owned by Josh Caporale and Fred and Carol Vogel of Waretown.
2007: Significant Decrease in Crime in Asbury Park
Friday, January 25th, 2008News
| REPRINTED: COURTESY OF THE ASBURY PARK PRESS, A GANNETT CO. NEWSPAPER
January 24, 2008 The city had 441 simple assaults, the lowest in a decade, down from 535 in 2006 and 466 in 2005. Simple assaults must be included in figures provided for the separate New Jersey crime reports. Thus, the total crime offenses for the state unified crime reports is 1,513, down 335, or 18.1 percent, from last year. In 2005, the number was 1,782, and in 2004, it was 2,019. “We’re not here to mislead anyone or make people believe we live in a perfect world,” Kinmon said in an interview Tuesday. “What’s important for people to know is we’re not going to tolerate what’s occurred here in the past. . . . “The decrease in crime in 2007 just shows us that we’re heading in the right direction and tells you a little about the effect members of the police department are making,” he said. “We’re going to continue to improve,” the chief added. “It’s easy to say crime is down in 2007, but that’s not going to help us if next year we’re back up. We’re not going to let up.” Kinmon said the City Council approved funding last year to add eight full-time officers to the force, for a total of 90. Kinmon was able to increase the street-crimes unit to 10 officers, from four. The unit made 899 arrests in 2007, up 321. Kinmon said police were able to improve their analysis of crime patterns through the use of data-crime mapping in its technical services unit, which show locations, time of day and developing trends. That allowed police to address troubled areas quickly, either with foot patrols or plain clothes officers, an approach similar to police COMSTAT programs used in a number of cities. Murders decreased by two, to six. Kinmon said the figure does not include the death of a 30-year-old-man who was punched in the head last May, despite the Monmouth County Medical Examiner’s Office classifying the death as a homicide. Thefts totalled 410, down 129, the lowest in a decade. Burglaries decreased by 49, to 235. Ten years ago there were 696 thefts and 337 burglaries. Aggravated assaults totalled 150, down 28, though those involving guns increased by 14, to 40. Also, although robberies went down from 193 to 184, those involving a gun increased by 13, to 54. However, authorities recovered 61 guns and arrested 46 people connected to those weapons, Kinmon said, about 15 more guns confiscated than the previous year. Reported stolen cars were 72, down 21, and the number of arsons decreased from 11 to four. Aggravated sexual assaults increased by four, to 11. Kinmon attributed the increase in part to spousal assaults. Drug activity calls to police have dropped dramatically, from 1,115 in 2005 to 1,038 in 2006 to 515 in 2007, which Kinmon said indicates that drug corners are being cleared. Drug-sale arrests totaled 80, up 49, while drug possession arrests decreased by 64, to 860. Total drug arrests were 940, compared to 955 in 2006 and 987 in 2005. Kinmon, 40, officially took over as chief March 9, 2007. He had been acting chief under City Manager Terence Reidy since November 2005. “I would say the improvements that have been made in public safety in the city are no accident,” Reidy said Wednesday. “There has been absolutely full court press on every single aspect under Mark’s leadership, from the Police Athletic League and gang resistance education in the schools to increases in the street-crime unit.” Starting late in 2005 and extending into 2007, the city experienced a number of incidents in which young black people killed each other, often related to gang activity. “The city was hit hard, as across the nation, with the violent crime increase in gang activity where there was easy access for people to get handguns and a willingness of young people to use weapons without fear or consequence,” Kinmon said. During 2007, however, the intelligence and information the city gained on gang activity “came a long way,” Kinmon said. He said he’s grateful to Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin for his commitment of resources and long-term investigations in the city. Lakiesha Johnson, a mother who lives on Springwood Avenue in the heart of some of the shootings in the past few years, said she does not go outside much lately because of a new baby, but said, “It is getting a little better — so far.” Johnson cautioned that it is too soon to know whether good conditions will prevail. Summonses issued for parking and moving violations were 10,116, up 522. Kinmon said police are addressing a lot of complaints on Main Street. He said drivers come into town with an attitude of “anything goes on Main Street” here but act differently in another town. “That’s not acceptable to us,” he said. “We don’t want that reputation.” After the council meeting Wednesday night, Councilman John Loffredo said: “We’re very happy with the direction the police are going in. “We know there’s much more that needs to be done, but the statistics show that crime is down in the city of Asbury Park.” |