Council moves to acquire Abbotsford Ave. properties

Bond ordinance

adds $1 million

for beachfront

BY CHRISTINEVARNO

Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH — The city added another $1 million to its oceanfront redevelopment bond ordinance.

At the council meeting on July 27, the governing body passed ordinance number 29-04, authorizing the issuance of an additional $1 million in bonds for the beachfront development. According to its title, it will support, "the acquisition, development, relocation and site work for oceanfront redevelopment ..."

There has been $7.7 million bonded for oceanfront development since its inception in 2000, according to Ronald Mehlhorn Sr., the city financial director.

"We have a bond ordinance already in place to pay certain expenses for the oceanfront," Mayor Adam Schneider said. "We added $1 million to that."

Schneider said the $1 million will be used for acquisition of land on Abbotsford Avenue, known as the Hotel Campus Project, at the foot of Broadway. He said there are nine properties at the location and three have yet to be purchased.

The six properties already received by the city were taken through eminent domain, Schneider said.

There are no plans for the property as of this time, according to Mehlhorn, who said, "It is a redevelopment area, and we are just clearing the site."

The oceanfront redevelopers, The Applied Cos., Hoboken; and Matzel and Mumford, a division of K. Hovnanian, Middletown, had paid the city back $2 million at the end of 2003, according to Mehlhorn.

"Why do we have to bond for another million if we have $2 million back?," Bill McLaughlin of Ocean Avenue asked the council.

James Aaron, the city attorney, said the money came in a way that could not be used directly for the current Hotel Campus project.

"It [the money] had to be refinanced and go toward other projects," Aaron said.

Schneider said bonding money is like paying a mortgage on a house in that it is paid over a period of time at a low interest rate.

"If you didn’t bond, you would never redevelop [property] because you wouldn’t have the money," Schneider said.