--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "dfsavgny" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> February 18, 2006
> Asbury Park Gives Developer a Deadline for a Project Long Overdue
> By RONALD SMOTHERS
> ASBURY PARK, N.J., Feb. 15 The Asbury Park City Council, under
> pressure to show more progress on redeveloping 56 acres on the
> blighted oceanfront, has given the master developer one month to
> negotiate changes in its agreement with the city to speed progress
> and prove its financial ability to fulfill the plan.
>
> The attempt to push things along comes some four years after the
> city entered into the agreement with Asbury Partners, the
developer.
>
> But it has been a battle of more than 15 years since the town's
> first ambitious efforts to revive its oceanfront became mired in
the
> bankruptcy of a developer, protracted litigation, corruption
> investigations and indictments of some appointed and elected town
> officials.
>
> There has been some progress. Construction is under way on three
> condominium projects by major developers brought in by Asbury
> Partners within the redevelopment area, just blocks from the ocean:
> the whimsical South Beach-style Esperanza, 224 condomium units in
10-
> and 16-story buildings in the center of the redevelopment area;
146
> town houses to the south on the shore of Wesley Lake; and a 156-
unit
> condominium at the northern end of the redevelopment area.
>
> The units, which areslated to sell for $400,000 to $1.1 million,
> represent 525 of the projected 3,100 residential units for the area.
>
> But the resort town's trademark boardwalk buildings the
Convention
> Hall, pavilions, and the Casino and Paramount Theater buildings
> which were the direct responsibility of Asbury Partners, remain
> ghostlike and largely vacant structures beside the Atlantic Ocean.
>
> And while Victorian mansions in inland areas have been bought up
and
> given new life, the defining symbol of the city today remains the
> rusting steel girders of an unfinished high-rise condominium
> building near the ocean that was abandoned 10 years ago when the
> first developer went bankrupt.
>
> Since 2001, when Asbury Partners, a Lakewood-based real estate and
> development company, offered to take the reins of the redevelopment
> effort, there have been so many delays and other problems that they
> have spent only $5.5 million of an estimated $60 million in
> preparation work on the infrastructure of the area, city officials
> said.
>
> This week, council members voted to give Asbury Partners until
March
> 30 to amend their agreement with the city to create clear
timetables
> for the redevelopment of the boardwalk buildings, produce a concept
> plan for their marketing, show clearer proof of financial ability,
> and set sanctions for failure to comply with the timetable.
>
> Both city officials and Asbury Partners say they are making
progress
> in their talks, but both sides have declared a "news blackout" on
> the negotiations and will not talk about specifics.
>
> Deputy Mayor James Bruno, a member of the five-member City Council,
> said that the new deadline was established "because we were just
> sick of looking at those buildings down there," referring to the
> Beaux Arts Convention Hall and the other structures that the
> redeveloper bought from the city.
>
> It is unclear how much leverage the city has to force Asbury
> Partners to speed things along. Further, there is a palpable fear
> that to push too hard could result in a round of litigation that
> would dwarf the nearly 10 years of delay and bankruptcy-related
> lawsuits that befell the city's first redeveloper.
>
> "Maybe we should have demanded more from them earlier, but we are
> not out for revenge now," said Mr. Bruno, a two-term councilman who
> was part of a reform slate that welcomed Asbury Partners to town in
> 2001 when they offered to put up money to clear the properties from
> bankruptcy proceedings. "We just want them to live up to their part
> of the agreement."
>
> Some other council members are more skeptical.
>
> "I don't think Asbury Partners shares our vision for the town,"
said
> James Keady, a recently elected councilman who is one of two
members
> pressing for the amendments. " And I don't think they have the
> ability to perform."
>
> It is not just the city or developers who have much at stake in the
> progress of Asbury Partners. For the last several years,
individuals
> have invested heavily in the hopes of Asbury Park's rebirth and
> bought up sagging properties in and around the oceanfront
> redevelopment area at bargain prices in hopes of a future bonanza.
>
> Those investments sparked further hopes that this time, Asbury Park
> was on its way back to the kind of heyday it enjoyed from the
1920's
> to the 1940's, when it was a seaside playland for the wealthy and
> the upwardly mobile.
>
> In the last few years, renovated Victorians arrayed around three
> small lakes in the city have become visible signs of those hopes.
> They, in turn, have triggered a bustle of activity in the downtown
> area six blocks inland, where new restaurants and stores are
popping
> up and a community of gays and lesbians has settled in.
>
> In many ways, though, this has swelled the ranks of critics of
> Asbury Partners with those impatient with the pace of the city's
> major development effort.
>
> Critics of Asbury Partners, like Richard DePetro, a developer who
is
> renovating two 30-unit historic buildings in the redevelopment
area,
> have said that the developer is dragging its feet while "land
> banking" properties until the value increases.
>
> Mr. DePetro said that Asbury Partners tried to force him to
> pay "extortionate" development and infrastructure fees and made
> attempts to get title to any ground-floor commercial space that
they
> develop, all in exchange for permission to build and renovate in
the
> area that the company controls.
>
> Last month, Mr. DePetro won a case against the city and Asbury
> Partners involving one of his projects, and he is pressing ahead on
> a second one.
>
> "Until Asbury Partners is gone from here, redevelopment is not
going
> to happen," Mr. DePetro said. "It was a mistake to interpose
someone
> like Asbury Partners between the city and developers."
>
> In an interview, Asbury Partners' principals, Glen Fishman and Hugh
> Lamle, declined to discuss their dealings with subdevelopers like
> Mr. DePetro. Mr. Lamle, however, suggested that some of the
> criticism comes from those who sought to pay bargain-basement
prices
> for development on prime real estate.
>
> On the issue of the boardwalk buildings that they are supposed to
> develop under the plan, the two said they had conducted marketing
> studies, but they would not disclose the results. They said only
> that there was "great interest" among developers for the properties.
>
> The builder of the Esperanza complex, Dean Geibel, president of
> Metro Homes, said he was satisfied that Asbury Partners had dealt
> fairly with him. He said that development fees and infrastructure
> fees, which affect the selling price of units, are commonly the
> subject of negotiations in such deals. He also said that he had
> agreed to deed over some of the commercial space in his planned
> buildings to Asbury Partners and that it was justified by the
> redevelopers' need to "control the type of retail and tone" of the
> area.
>
> "It is the way for them to make sure that the beachfront area is
> what they want," he said. "I was actually encouraged by the way in
> which they dealt with this part."
>
> For small developers like Robert Ranuro, who has rehabilitated some
> 400 housing units on the fringes of the redevelopment area and a
> half-dozen downtown stores, too much is being made of the long road
> to the oceanfront development while too little is being said about
> things that he and others are doing in other parts of the city.
>
> "Our success is contingent on what Asbury Partners does," he
> said. "But their success is also contingent on our success. If you
> are buying on the waterfront, you want to have a good downtown."
>
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