Demolition of the former Phoenix building began earlier today as construction workers gathered on the lot on Cookman Avenue.
Nearby buildings on Sewall Avenue were razed yesterday. City waterfront redeveloper Asbury Partners has ownership of these structures and is demolishing them to make way for a new streetscape plan including sidewalks, shrubbery and lighting to make the walk from the downtown to the boardwalk more aesthetically pleasing.
Crews started at the easternmost corner of the lot this morning and will make their way west until the entire building is demolished.
The Phoenix building housed the eponymous go-go rock bar 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. IStar Financial, which owns Asbury Partners, purchased the structures on the site in recent months.
For more photos of the demolition, click here for a photo essay on the Asbury Park Sun’s Facebook page.