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Two Asbury Park business staples have come together to purchase a permanent home in the city’s Main Street Redevelopment zone.

Second Life Bikes founder Kerri Martin has partnered with Cowerks’ Danny Croak and Bret Morgan  [shown below, respectively] to purchase the building together at 21 Main Street that Second Life Bikes currently leases.

“It’s exciting because as we’ve grown, one of the things we’ve wanted to do is purchase our own real estate,” Morgan said. “I think it’s going to be a big win for us and likewise for Kerri and her team.”

Built in 1900, the 9,000 square foot commercial building boasted a $769,000 listing price on property sales websites like LoopNet and Trulia.

The building is under contract for purchase by the two groups, but the closing of title — when ownership actually transfers — has not yet occurred. Morgan said he’d rather not disclose the building’s sales price until after everything is finalized.

Martin, whose Second Life Bikes [at right] nonprofit has occupied the space for six and half years, said landlord Rob Kaprelian was a supportive agent in turning her dream of owning the building into reality.

“He really helped make this possible,” Martin said. “It was such a roundabout process and he really worked with us.”

In Nov. 2013, Martin launched a crowdfunding campaign to help fund the purchase. By March 2014, the campaign raised $28,010, which was applied toward the down payment, she said.

At the time, the asking price was $750,000.

“We’re in the final stretch,” Martin said. “It feels good having a permanent in Asbury Park, and a good home at the crossroads in Asbury Park. It’s a very good location and I don’t know if another location would have been as accessible to everyone who knows us.”

Boasting dramatic 20′ ceilings, a 1500 square-foot mezzanine, exposed brick, stained concrete floor & access from three sides, the Main Street commercial property is located within just south of the transportation center and one block from the city downtown Cookman Avenue business district.

The location will serve as a satellite space for Cowerks, currently located in the Lakehouse Music Academy building.

A $250,000 state Economic Development Authority [EDA] loan will help fund the tech and entrepreneurial hub’s current and Main Street location renovations, Morgan said.

With a planned Springwood Avenue entrance, nine offices will be created on the mezzanine, with a conference room and private event space, ground floor small business makerspaces, and a café run by the entrepreneurs behind the High Voltage boardwalk venue, Morgan said.

“It going to be a place to call home,” Morgan said. “This purchase gives all of our businesses a secure place where we know we’ll’ be able to continue grow.”

Second Life Bikes will keep its Main Street entrance and first floor footprint at the front of the building.

“We’re glad to add the energy that Cowerks will bring,” Martin said. “It compliments Second Life’s mission.”

Martin’s nonprofit serves as not only a community bike shop but also offers the city’s youth a free bicycle via its earn a bike program that serves as a job training and mechanical repair tutorial. Likewise, Croak and Morgan’s Cowerks offers the city’s youth computer based training programs.

“They will be exposed to creative entrepreneurial endeavors like graphic design,” Martin said.

[Cowerks gallery photos courtesy of Gregory Edgerton of Humble Humans]

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The Asbury Park Sun is affiliated with the triCityNews newspaper.

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