ASBURY PARK — The owner of the former Metropolitan Hotel site on Asbury
Avenue plans to build a six-story, 98-unit residence that would adopt many of
the architectural features of the landmark white building that was razed
in March 2008.
In a presentation to the City Council this past week, owner Donald
Cresitello, a former Morristown mayor, said he does not yet have funding in
hand,
but will get city approvals first.
"The financial people say there's money available for apartments — I had
hoped for condos," Cresitello said Wednesday night.
Cresitello bought the vacant 180-room Spanish revival-style hotel in 1993,
but never developed the building before it was declared an eminent hazard
and torn down three years ago.
The developer's architect, Anthony Gianforcaro, showed plans Wednesday
night for one- and two-bedroom units, a two-story lobby, a rooftop patio, an
enclosed pool and a recreation area.
Cresitello will need approval to increase the height from four to six
stories and to provide 1 1/2 parking spaces per residential unit instead of
two.
Donald Sammet, the city director of planning and redevelopment, said both
of those changes are permitted on the waterfront. The property, on the 300
block of Asbury Avenue, is close to both the beach and the downtown.
Cresitello said some of the units will be summer homes, and the others
will be for year-round residents. He plans to have 34 two-bedroom units, 56
one-bedroom, seven luxury two-bedroom and a top-floor penthouse.
If he gets financing for condominiums, Cresitello said the pricing as of
now would be $475,000 for a one-bedroom, $550,000 to $575,000 for a
two-bedroom, and in the $600,000s for the luxury two-bedrooms.
The plan calls for an automated parking garage where cars are parked
automatically in a sublevel parking space where residents themselves would not
enter.
The Planning Board will hear the proposal next.
The hotel closed in 1987, when Martin and Sylvia Weinblatt, whose family
had owned it since 1945, sold the property for $2.25 million to Jersey City
developers Karim and Gomaa el-Said, at a time when a then-massive
waterfront plan was taking off. Ultimately, those plans went nowhere.
The new owners filed for bankruptcy a year later. In 1992, a Texas
developer contracted to buy the hotel for $600,000 from the American Savings
and
Loan bank and convert it into senior citizen apartments, but never got
financing.
The bank eventually sold the Metropolitan in June 1993 for $10,150 to a
company, 309 Park Corp., which sold it the next month to Cresitello's company
for $150,000.
Cresitello initially sought to convert the hotel into a congregate care
facility of one-bedroom apartments and efficiencies for middle-income
residents or the elderly. But the Morristown developer and city soon clashed
when
the owners sought to open a 40-unit annex as a daily or weekly motel to get
cash while moving forward with their larger plans.
Nancy Shields: 732-643-4229; _nshields@njpressmedia.com_
(mailto:nshie...@njpressmedia.com)
Steve Herman, Asbury Tower, 1701 Ocean Ave
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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