www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20051022&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=510220338&SectionCat=NEWS02&Template=printartHousing complex to replace Surf Club
Planners OK idea; permit still needed
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/22/05
BY JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
DOVER TOWNSHIP — The music may soon die at Joey Harrison's Surf Club, a beachfront landmark that has lured summer revelers to Ortley Beach for more than 50 years.
On Wednesday, Centex Homes LLC received approval from the Planning Board to build "The Sands At Ortley Beach," a 28-unit town house development on the Surf Club property, at 1900 Ocean Ave., and on a parking lot at Route 35 North and Seventh Avenue.
Centex has a contract to purchase the beach club and parking lot from Joseph Barcellona Sr., who bought the club in the 1970s.
Beier Avenue resident Daniel J. Polifroni, who has known Barcellona Sr. for more than 20 years, said he was pleased with plans to turn the beachfront bar into luxury town houses.
"If it's done in the proper way, it will be wonderful, and great for property values," Polifroni said. "We're really happy about this."
Centex must still obtain a Coastal Area Facilities Review Act permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection before construction of the town houses can begin.
Joseph Barcellona Jr., the son of the club's owner and general manager of the beachfront bar, said the club will reopen in the summer if Centex does not obtain the CAFRA permit by then.
"If they move quickly and get that approval, it won't be open," Barcellona said. "We are definitely going to open next year if the CAFRA approval doesn't come through. It's all up to how fast it happens."
The night club closed for the winter earlier this month.
Planning Board member Len Colica said the township will have access to the beach in front of the Surf Club in exchange for giving season beach badges to residents of the new town houses. The Surf Club's beach is adjacent to the township-owned public beach at Ortley Beach.
Colica said there were no objectors to Centex's plans, which were supported by the Ortley Beach Property Owners Association. The town house plan was approved by an 8-to-0 vote of the board.
"It's really going to be an upscale development," Colica said.
The Surf Club property and the parking lot are zoned for multifamily use, with 16 units per acre permitted. Together, they are 2.45 acres.
According to documents filed with the township, the town houses will have from two to five bedrooms and between 1,684 and 2,879 square feet. The units will also feature garages and terraces.
Eight duplex-style units and eight third-story flats will be built on the Surf Club site, which is on Ocean Avenue between Sixth and Seventh avenues. They will be built in two three-story buildings that will total 75,470 square feet.
Two additional buildings, containing eight three-story town houses, will be built across Ocean Avenue from the Surf Club, on what is now a parking area. Those two buildings will be 21,000 square feet.
Four three-story town houses will be constructed in one building on the site of a parking lot at Route 35 North and Seventh Avenue. This building will be 10,500 square feet.
The sale of the beach club, a waterfront hangout for more than five decades, has long been rumored, particularly as real estate values soared in the past several years.
When Barcellona Sr. acquired the place, he named it using a pseudonym his father adopted to further a boxing career in the mid-20th century, according to a 1989 interview Barcellona Sr. gave to the Asbury Park Press.
"Italians couldn't get fights so he took an Irish name," Barcellona said then. He tried prizefighting himself before buying the club.
In spring 2004, Barcellona Sr.'s representatives approached Dover Township municipal officials with an offer to sell the property at 1900 Ocean Ave. They quoted the club's overall value, including its liquor license, at $10 million.
Mayor Paul C. Brush has said the purchase price offered to the township was less than that figure. Brush lobbied the Township Council to pursue the club's purchase, saying he believed the property would serve as a "little Island Beach" for Dover residents.
But council members never pursued the acquisition of the club, with Council President Gregory P. McGuckin saying the council had decided not to hold discussions after learning there was already a contract purchaser for the property.
"My immediate reaction is, it's a shame," Brush said Friday. "We missed another golden opportunity for another family facility for the town."
Music lovers who enjoyed the club's beachfront vibe are also likely to miss the place. The club is one of the last large beach-level music venues on the Jersey Shore.
The Tradewinds in Sea Bright, another longtime beachfront landmark, closed in 2003 and has been demolished. Two luxury homes are being built there.
In recent years, the Surf Club, booked by Sayreville-based promoters Concerts East Inc., has hosted performances by national touring acts such as surf guitarist thingy Dale, the Psychedelic Furs, the Smithereens, the Saw Doctors and the Legendary Wailers.
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