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Restoration of the historic Powhatan hotel is now off the table, according to property owner Pat Fasano.

The local developer withdrew his application to renovate the 208 Third Avenue hours prior to Tuesday’s Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting, according to Zoning Officer Barbara Van Wagner.

Fasano, an over 20 year long resident, was seeking to appeal Van Wagner’s interpretation of the property’s allowable use.

The crux of the argument is whether the 1911 structure is a permitted hotel or whether the use was abandoned during its operation as a spiritual retreat by Dr. Robert Sorge, who purchased the 26-room en suite hotel in the early 1960s.

Sorge, a naturopathic physician, operated his Abunda Life Medical Nutrition Testing Clinic for decades. It offered offered holistic nutritional homeopathic solutions and utilized eight of the 26 rooms as a retreat.

Fasano has said he took ownership of the building in August 2016 and applied for a title transfer and the appropriate permits one year later. It is then that the preexisting use determination came into question.  

Sorge, who returned from Arizona to testify at length during the first appeal hearing before the Zoning Board in March, said although he ran his retreat for decades and applied for tax exemption at the state level, he never abandoned the use.

But his argument was called into question by Fred Lavinthal, attorney for master waterfront redeveloper iStar who said the property has not operated as a hotel since 1964.

The Tuesday night Zoning Board meeting was meant to allow Lavinthal to cross examine Fasano’s planner Eileen Banyra, who testified at length during the Sept. 25 meeting.

But Fasano said the long hearing process and costs associated to getting a final judgement has left him no other option than to abandoned the project.

“It’s been a year since they stopped my job and I’m out $100,000,” Fasano said. “It took me six months to get a demo permit, which didn’t happen until I conceded that it was a retreat. I have never seen a demo permit that requires a use.”  

Fasano said he paid $7,000 for his planner to sit before the Zoning Board last month and that his attorney fees are $600 an hour.

“If I knew a year ago that I would be out $100,000 and still not have a vote, I would never have gone through with this application,” he said. I’ll knock down the building and sell off the [adjacent] three properties to a developer. They’ll get eight-story spaghetti boxes that no one lives in. I just can’t keep throwing good money after bad. I’m going to sell off my land and get out.”

Fasano has already sold his million dollar home, located on Second and Grand avenues, his 162 Main Street mixed use complex that houses the popular Brando’s Citi Cucina, and has put his residential lots he owns, on the market.

“I have $3 million sitting in Atlantic City,” he said. “I just opened my restaurant, finished my house and have a site plan ready to develop. There is nothing for me in Asbury Park. I can’t pay for it anymore. I’m trying to do good things for the icty and they are not interested. I’m going to take the path of least resistance.”

Fasano, who finished the Memorial Drive Coastal Habitat For Humanity ReStore project and Main Street Dollar Tree projects this year, said he is frustrated with the building approval process in the City.

“The City does not have a system in place that is fair for a zoning interpretation,” he said.

Fasano said he spent last week cleaning the property before heading down to his new Atlantic City home. Upon his return for the Zoning Board meeting, he discovered copper pipes were stolen and his property was flooded.

“I went by to check on the property and found the basement door kicked in,” he said. “After they took all the copper pipes they could see, the went after the water main. I was able to shut off the main but now I’ll be looking at an exorbitant water bill.”  

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