Developer proposes three-building redevelopment at triangular Block 3801 site in Asbury Park

Jennifer Phillips Smith, an attorney with Gibbons PC representing APW Redeveloper (an affiliate of master developer Asbury Partners), presented a revised development plan for Block 3801, Lot 1.02 — the triangular parcel at the intersection of Asbury and Cookman avenues.

The redeveloper is proposing three separate buildings arranged on two subdivided lots. John Barry, the project's planner, described a five-story condominium building on Asbury Avenue, a three-story mixed-use building at the tip of the triangle facing Cookman Avenue and a four-story townhome “string” along Cookman. Barry said the plan reduces density compared with a prior six-story proposal and keeps building heights below the redevelopment plan maximums.

The project's civil engineer, Lena Balorda Barone of French and Parello Associates, told the council the site is partially within a flood-hazard area and that the design responds to New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) dry-access rules. "The elevation we had to address is Elevation 11," she said, describing that as NJDEP's one-foot-above-FEMA benchmark for the site. Barone said Building 1 (the five-story condo) contains 50 units; Building 2 (the mixed-use building) would contain roughly 5,100 square feet of retail on the ground floor and eight residential units above; Building 3 comprises nine townhome units. She said the project provides EV make-ready and EV-ready infrastructure, surface EV-ready stalls and porous pavement with infiltration basins and a rain garden to address stormwater.

Architects described layouts and materials. Michael Lawson (Manoa Wasco Architects and Planners) said the five-story building would be "four stories of wood frame construction over one story of podium" with parking in the podium above the flood elevation, rooftop amenities and balconies oriented toward ocean and lake views. Frank Minervini (MBMK Architecture) said the mixed-use building is set on a raised sidewalk platform because entries must be elevated above the flood hazard elevation.

Council members and residents focused questions on landscaping, impervious cover, parking counts, circulation and the planned location of retail entrances. Barone said the redevelopment plan requires 101 parking spaces for the site and the developer will provide 25 on-site spaces and additional compliance measures, and that the project proposes 14 surface EV spaces that are make-ready and further EV-ready capacity inside buildings. The project team said the redevelopment plan's parking standard is 1.5 spaces per unit and that the design provides more than the baseline requirement. When asked about headlights from cars pulling into surface stalls near an existing walkway, the team said they would add shrubbery and a landscaped curve and consider additional buffering at the council's request. Driveway widths were reported as 24 feet.

Public commenters raised traffic and accessibility concerns and asked about public art, green roofs and the size of the proposed rain garden. Jennifer Phillips Smith and the design team said the waterfront redevelopment plan did not require a new traffic study for each project because an earlier plan-level study had established assumptions for the area; they said no new traffic study was required for this application. The team also said the retail floor could be configured for one or multiple tenants and that all residential units (both townhomes and multifamily) are intended for sale.

No formal council vote on the redevelopment was recorded at the meeting; the presentation concluded with the council opening the matter for public comment and then closing the hearing for tonight. Developers said the project will be built in two phases, with Buildings 1 and 3 constructed first and Building 2 (the mixed-use building at the point) as the second phase.