A dilapidated Cookman Avenue building that once housed two long-closed entertainment venues is expected to be demolished within 60 days.
The structure was last the home of the Club Phoenix, a go-go rock bar open for about a decade until the late 1990s. Previously, the building had housed the Odyssey gay nightclub from the early 1970s through the mid 1980s.
Brian Cheripka of waterfront master redeveloper Asbury Partners, which is purchasing the site, says a closing is expected next week. Cheripka declined to name the purchase price.
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.
The demolition of the Cookman Avenue building is part of a streetscape improvement program undertaken by Asbury Partners between the downtown business district and the waterfront, including Cookman Avenue, according to Cheripka.
That project will feature new sidewalks, curbs and plantings to help link the downtown and waterfront by encouraging more pedestrian traffic between the two, Cheripka said. The streetscape work is planned to start within two weeks, and completed by July 4, he said.
As for the former Club Phoenix and Odyssey structure, Cheripka said it is beyond repair.
“Right now our intention is to demolish the building,” he said. “There’s tremendous water damage. We did a physical inspection of the interior of the building, as well as the environmental conditions there.”
Cheripka said that most of the building has been vacant for years. Tenants have been seen in some of the upstairs apartments in the past several years, however.
“Given the current state of the building, and that it has sat in disrepair for several years, it takes away from the positive work on redevelopment,” he said.
A second vacant structure attached to the Club Phoenix building is owned by Asbury developer Vincent Gifford, and Asbury Partners has initiated negotiations to purchase that structure for eventual demolition, Cheripka said.
There are no imminent plans to develop the Club Phoenix site. The iStar-owned Asbury Partners first project will be the VIVE development of 28 townhouses on Kingsley Avenue near its intersection with Asbury Avenue.
