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After a few shaky years, sales are steady in the condominiums in Asbury Park’s waterfront redevelopment zone — so steady, in fact, that Wesley Grove only has one unit left to sell, while North Beach has vacancies only in its third building, which was just completed last year.

Wesley Grove and North Beach are both located in the city’s waterfront redevelopment zone, which spans 150 acres in the eastern part of the city, from the northern Loch Arbour border south to Wesley Lake. The zone’s western border is Webb Street in the north; Bergh Street south of Sunset Avenue; and Grand Avenue in the southernmost two blocks of the city.

The city first opened the doors to condominium developers because condos packed the most economic punch, allowing the waterfront to be redeveloped on a block-by-block basis rather than in small pieces, said city director of planning and redevelopment Don Sammet. When a condo developer wants to build in Asbury Park, they first approach master waterfront redeveloper Asbury Partners. If they can strike a deal with Asbury Partners, the plans move forward to the city, who has the ultimate say in whether the plans go forward.

Condos are also beneficial in the waterfront redevelopment zone because “the more units [are sold], the more profit to the builder, the more funds there are available to pay for all the infrastructure improvements in the waterfront,” Sammet said. “With a block-wide development scenario, you get not only an economic efficiency but an efficiency in the number of dwelling units you can construct.”

TRENDING TOWARD CONDOS

In recent years, condominiums have sprouted up throughout the Jersey Shore. Peter Reinhart, director of the Kislak Real Estate Institute at Monmouth University, attributes this to a few socioeconomic and cultural factors. And it doesn’t hurt that a large condo complex can bring ocean views to a multitude of buyers.

“The oceanfront views are just great, so the extent to which you can maximize those views to more homes …. is just a valuable thing to have,” Reinhart said. “In Asbury Park, you’ve got the ocean and a community that’s continuing to have a good reputation.”

Also, the housing market is favorable right now, “with very low mortgage rates around 4 percent for a 30-year mortgage,” Reinhart said. “Renting prices have just really been climbing so from a pure economic sense, buying makes very good sense right now.”

And it seems younger people in general are trending toward smaller homes in more urban settings.

“The push is toward smaller, more walkable living communities, closer to mass transit, rather than the Baby Boom generation, who really liked suburban larger homes on larger lots,” Reinhart said.

The five-year housing market downturn has “bottomed out,” Reinhart said, so people are finally starting to buy again, although some may still be reluctant coming out of the worst housing downturn since World War II.

“It’s hard to pull the trigger sometimes when the news has been so bad, but housing is cyclical whether we like it or not,” he said. “A long downturn is usually 18 months. To have a five-year downturn was just unprecedented … but I’ve seen a lot of experts saying people are going to look back five years from now and say, ‘I should have bought in 2012.'”

WESLEY GROVE

Cookman Avenue’s Wesley Grove [pictured at top of this story] consists of 30 town homes and 60 condominiums nestled between the waterfront and the downtown. Each unit includes two to three bedrooms with a den, kitchen and living room. All of the units have access to outdoor space, and some have private balconies.

Condos at Wesley Grove have sold for prices from $325,000 to $800,000, according to Teresa Minnick, a spokesperson for boardwalk redeveloper Madison Marquette. Madison Marquette acquired the building in 2008, after pre-sales had already begun under original developer Westminster Communities.

Sales at Wesley Grove slow in the winter and pick up “dramatically” in the spring, Minnick said in an email.

“Also, as you can imagine, things did slow down some during the financial downturn that began in 2008 but we maintained a healthy absorption throughout,” Minnick said. “That is, sales never stopped altogether.”

Minnick attributed Wesley Grove’s almost-sold-out status to its proximity to the downtown, boardwalk, beach and Ocean Grove, as well as its adequate parking and variety of unit types.

And although units at Wesley Grove are all but unavailable, Madison Marquette has compiled an extensive waiting list full of people who are interested in future residential phases in the area, Minnick said.

NORTH BEACH

A larger-scale condominium complex sits farther north at 1501 Ocean Ave. North Beach [pictured below right of Wesley Grove photo], which shares its name with the nearby surfing and fishing spot, consists of three buildings connected by a parking garage. The first two buildings — dubbed the Seville and the Barcelona — were built and sold first, with the first closing taking place in 2008. The complex’s third building, the Monterey, was just completed last year.

North Beach boasts 157 units in total — 15 in the Seville, 46 in the Barcelona and 96 in the Monterey. Sixty-five units are still vacant, all of which are in the recently-completed Monterey, according to sales manager Linda Petrick.

The floor plans in North Beach are mostly two-bedroom, two-bathroom, Petrick said, along with a few one- and three-bedroom units. Oceanview units face the south with the ocean visible to the left, and oceanfront units have a larger view of the beachfront. The oceanview units start at the mid-$400,000 mark, while oceanfront starts at $800,000.

The units range from 1400 to 1700 square feet, with some duplexes coming in at 1900 square feet. The complex includes a private parking garage, 24-hour security, a staffed lobby, a fitness center and a pool.

Although there have been “ups and downs” in sales at North Beach, “it has picked up significantly in the last two years,” Petrick said. This is largely due to the developers lowering prices by about 30 percent in 2010, she added.

Of the North Beach residents, Petrick said about half call it home year round and half use their condos as second homes.

Condos are popular because “it’s an easier lifestyle” than single-family living, Petrick said. “You have to pay a maintenance fee but you don’t have to worry about maintaining it. That’s the beauty of condo living. You don’t have to cut grass, shovel snow or clean common areas.”

TOWN HOMES ON THE HORIZON

Although condos in the waterfront zone have sold well the past two years, in the future, the zone will likely see town home-like structures with fewer floors, Sammet said. This is because the cost of steel has gone up so much, it is no longer cost-effective to build large structures like high-rise condominiums.

“What we’re talking about now is steering away from the city block-wide development concept because the cost efficiencies just aren’t there like they used to be,” Sammet said.

A new town home complex called Vive is leading the trend in wood-built structures. Vive will sit on the corner of Kingsley Street and Asbury Avenue. Although the lot is zoned for an eight-story structure, Vive’s units will have only three to four floors.

Also, property owners in the waterfront redevelopment zone are showing more interest in rehabilitating their structures, Sammet said. This could alter which properties are included in the waterfront redevelopment plan, which officials are discussing amending.

Whatever amendments they make, developers will still likely keep an urban feel in the waterfront redevelopment zone by making sure buildings are not set back too far from the sidewalk. Officials look to South Beach, Fla., Atlantic City and Long Branch for inspiration at times, Sammet said, although they make it a point not to model Asbury Park after any other city.

Redevelopers have also discussed encouraging the construction of retail spaces “along Cookman and Ocean avenues and, to a lesser extent, Kingsley Street and Western Avenue” within the waterfront redevelopment zone, Sammet said. The existing redevelopment plan calls for new construction on Ocean Avenue to have ground-floor commercial space. On Kingsley Street, redevelopers feel commercial spaces should be optional, not mandated.

VIVE

The 28 new town homes at Vive will be available for sale in June, said Jan Cooper, iStar’s vice president of strategic marketing and planning.

The town homes will have two or three bedrooms, with some options for a fourth floor to function as either a roof top terrace or a bedroom. Square footage will range from 1700 to 2200 square feet. Each unit will have a two-car garage, Cooper said.

The difference between town homes and condos lies in the floor structure. “Condos are more of a flat-over-flat structure, stacked horizontally, whereas your town home is more vertical in nature and you’re owning all four floors.”

The town homes will be “priced to market,” Cooper said. “It’s important for iStar to bring a product to market that’s going to sell in today’s real estate environment.”

iStar is putting in “over half a million dollars of landscaping coming down Cookman” leading to Vive, Cooper said. “It’s really going to start to create a solid sense of community in this waterfront redevelopment district … It’s just a burst of activity in the waterfront area that’s going to continue to spark a lot of conversation.”

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