Artist Rendering for Promenade redevelopment
By BRIAN IANIERI Press of A.C. Staff Writer | Tuesday, July 27, 2010
SEA ISLE CITY — A prime beachfront lot vacant since a 1962 storm washed away a dance hall there is among the sites of a proposed $2 million project
City Council on Tuesday informally supported an architect’s plan to erect a band shelter at the empty lot off John F. Kennedy Boulevard and Pleasure Avenue, replace a gazebo on the nearby Promenade and change the streetscape and landscaping in the area.
The property belongs to Cape May County through its Open Space program. The county review board approved the city’s proposal on Tuesday afternoon, Sea Isle City Mayor Desiderio said.
“This will turn into a jewel to rejuvenate the city’s Promenade area.
not only for Sea Isle City but for Cape May County,” said Desiderio, who is also a county freeholder. “This will really be something special.”
Sea Isle City had long considered uses for the property and budgeted $2.4 million in a capital plan over the next two years, City Council President Mary Tighe said.
Architects Vince Orlando and Blane Steinman presented plans Tuesday for an open-air bandstand with a wood dance floor, concrete pavement and fixed benches. Much of the property will be an open lawn.
Orlando suggested the first phase of work — including the bandstand and gazebo — could start in November and be finished by May 1. The second phase, which addresses landscaping and utilities between Landis Avenue and the Promenade, could start in fall of 2011, he said.
The project would become a highly noticeable attraction in a city spending millions of dollars on an ongoing “beach-to-bay” revitalization effort to build attractions, a marina and walkways along the city’s main corridor of John F. Kennedy Boulevard. The heavily traveled boulevard leads from the Sea Isle City Bridge to the beachfront Promenade.
“This project’s going to make this town,” city resident Irene Jameson said.
The bandstand woulsd be built on a stretch of vacant land near the beach off John F. Kennedy Boulevard, a section of land with its own history.
The lot is dubbed “Excursion Park” but was called the Cospar lot for more than 30 years.
The land once held a dance hall in downtown Sea Isle City but was wiped away in the Storm of 1962, which ravaged New Jersey’s coastline. In the mid-1970s, a city redevelopment authority sold the land for $199,000.
The lot was slated for redevelopment into a hotel and convention center, but those plans fell through. Later, a controversial plan for a 53-unit condominium complex sprang up and met with public opposition.
In the early 1990s, Sea Isle City bought the land from Cospar Inc. for $2 million using a low-interest loan through a state Green Acres open space program. It was briefly used as a parking lot.
In 1998, Cape May County bought the property for its Open Space program and relieving Sea Isle City of the expense of its 20-year loan, Desiderio said.
Desiderio said he dubbed the area “Excursion Park” after an Excursion Hall, which stood there in the mid-1950s.
Since the 1962 storm, “There has been nothing on it,” Desiderio said.