Sea Bright Considers Condemning Three Properties

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Stories and Photos by Liz Sheehan
SEA BRIGHT – An area in the downtown that includes two vacant lots and the former primary school is being eyed for condemnation.
The borough’s Unified Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the matter at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 8.
The properties that are being considered by the board are the former borough school building, 4 River St., owned by River Street Realty, Brooklyn, New York; 1084 Ocean Ave., owned by Beachfront Joe, LLC, Sea Bright; and 1080 Ocean Ave., owned by WonYoung, LLC, Sea Bright.
A Condemnation Redevelopment Investigation report has been prepared by a borough consultant, and is available at Borough Hall for those who want to examine it or copy it.
If the board decides after the hearing to recommend the area as a Condemnation Redevelopment Area, then the matter will be referred to the Borough Council which will hold a public hearing, and then decide whether to adopt a resolution designating is as such.

Empty lots off Ocean Avenue are part of the Sea Bright’s Unified Planning Board’s proposed Condemnation Redevelopment Area.

“This designation of the Area as a Condemnation Redevelopment Area shall authorize the Borough of Sea Bright to exercise the power of eminent domain to acquire any property in the Area,” stated the Planning Board, in a published legal notice.
Councilman Marc A. Leckstein, who is a member and council liaison to the Planning Board, said Monday that the two Ocean Avenue properties had been vacant since Super Storm Sandy, after which the buildings were torn down. The school had been vacant “for as long as I remember,” he said.
Asked what the borough would do with the properties if they were acquired, Leckstein said, “There is no answer to that now.”
In February, 2015, Aldo Frustacci, the owner of the school, which has been vacant since the late 1970s when the town’s students were sent to the Oceanport school district, made a presentation to the Planning Board seeking approval to convert the school to a 12-unit apartment building.
At that board meeting, the applicant’s attorney, Martin A. McGann Jr., Red Bank, said his client would change the plans to deal with questions raised by the board, according to a press report of the meeting.
McGann was on vacation and not available for comment about his client’s property on Tuesday.
There was no contact information for the owners of the three properties available.
According to njparcels.com, a website that lists real estate transactions, River Street Realty, LLC bought 4 River St. in January 1996 for zero dollars from Aldo Frustacci, while Frustacci bought the building for $100,000 in November 1995 from Fondeur Bridges Properties, Greenwich, Connecticut.
The address for River Street Realty LLC., and Aldo Frustacci are the same in the listings, 165 27th St., Brooklyn, New York.