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The no-man’s land of vacant lots and dilapidated buildings on Cookman Avenue dividing the downtown and beachfront will get a facelift before July 4th.

A streetscape program of new sidewalks, curbing, lighting and landscaping will be installed by waterfront redeveloper Asbury Partners on the stretch of Cookman (shown above) between Grand Avenue and Kingsley Street. The only occupied building there now is the Wesley Grove townhouses.

“The current environment does not encourage people to walk from the (downtown) central business district to the waterfront. Between the old buildings boarded up, and the general lack of upkeep, it discourages people from making that connectivity,” said Brian Cheripka of Asbury Partners.

Cheripka is Vice President of Land for iStar Financial, which took over Asbury Partners in 2010, after the former owners of Asbury Partners defaulted on loans made to it by iStar. The financial services company has installed Cheripka in Asbury Park to oversee the waterfront redevelopment project.

Asbury Partners has now taken ownership of the vacant Cookman Avenue building which once housed the go-go rock bar Club Phoenix, as well as the popular Club Odyssey gay bar, and plans to demolish it within 60 days, Cheripka said.

Asbury Partners is negotiating to take ownership of other dilapidated structures for demolition as part of the streetscape program, which will also include upgrades at Asbury Avenue where it borders the triangular lot across from Wesley Grove, Cheripka said. Improvements will also be made on First and Second Avenues near their intersections with Kingsley.

But Cookman Avenue will receive the biggest impact, with new landscaping and lighting from the downtown to the waterfront.

Cheripka said a fifteen foot wide “green edge” will be installed. That means new curbing and grass in the five feet from the curb to the sidewalk, new sidewalks almost five feet wide and new fill and grass for another five feet beyond the sidewalk.

And at Cookman Avenue’s intersections with Heck Street and Monroe Avenue, additional plantings and evergreen type material will be installed, Cheripka said.

“The goal is to create visual focal points,” he said. “You then look down Cookman Avenue toward the waterfront and it becomes a more pedestrian friendly environment.”

Cheripka said eight new street lights will also be installed on Cookman, and old utility poles will be removed.

Work has already begun at the vacant Board of Education building at Cookman and Grand (the waterfront redevelopment zone extends up to Grand Avenue). The structure has been repainted, and the broken windows fixed to improve its appearance, although the building will likely be demolished one day, Cheripka said. 

Asbury Partners also had to consider the Bamboozle Music Festival in late May in scheduling the streetscape work, he said.

Before Bamboozle, Cheripka said his company will concentrate on installing new sidewalks, lighting, curbing and possibly some sod.

“After Bamboozle, we’ll pick it back up,” he said.

Cheripka said the streetscape project will cost in excess of $500,000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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