Story and photos by Jay Cook
HIGHLANDS – There was no shortage of hardships in areas affected by Super Storm Sandy throughout the state; shorelines were left unrecognizable, residential districts were leveled and state infrastructure was washed away.
Recovery periods varied up and down the Jersey Shore. Though for one small borough, nestled between rolling hills and Sandy Hook, local businesses, community organizations and the arts are catapulting it into a long overdue renaissance.
“We’re really trying to turn a corner and give some new blood and new life into the town, and it’s really showing,” said Highlands councilwoman Carolyn Broullon.
Revitalizing Highlands is a task that one local real estate developer has made his mission.
“We’re building and enhancing on already established tradition, an already established position in the marketplace, so to speak,” said Jim Bollerman, president of Bollerman Real Estate Services. “We’re just trying to bring it back to its former glory.”
Bollerman is the key figure behind the transformation at Sandy Hook Bay Marina on Willow Street. When he purchased the property in 2005, improvements were necessary across the board.
However, before he could make any changes, the restaurant formerly on site, the Original Oyster, along with the entirety of the marina, was essentially destroyed during Sandy. That left Bollerman with a tough decision to make: sell off and cut his losses, or bear down and rejuvenate the property. He decided on the latter.
“We just see ourselves carrying forward with the tradition of the history of Highlands,” Bollerman said.
It sure has been quite the process. The property is now currently split into two sections; residential townhouses and a marina compound.
Harborside at Hudson’s Ferry, the name given to the 49-unit townhouse complex by the developing company Pulte Homes of New Jersey, is delivering a facelift to the section of Highlands near the entrance to the Henry Hudson Trail. Homes in that area are currently listed between $600,000 and more than $1 million, according to Pulte.
The Sandy Hook Bay Marina has also seen new life in the post-Sandy era. While the marina portion opened this past May, a new upscale dining establishment will be replacing the Original Oyster.
That restaurant, Joe Amiel’s Bay Pointe Inn, is slated to open by the end of October or early November. With a New England feel, accompanied by the style of architect Stanford White, Bollerman believes it can add to the already established Highlands restaurant scene.
“A lot of the restaurants in Highlands, they are the fabric of the Jersey Shore; they withstood Hurricane Sandy and they’re very much part of the maritime history,” he said.
The Miller Street mural is comprised of eight postcards, all depicting Highlands’ unique history.
Also, the state-of-the-art marina, which houses 130 permanent and 15 transient slips, can bring vacationing boaters in, only furthering its importance on the local economy.
“That really creates a great economic opportunity for the Highlands, because not only do we get them as slip lessees and they’ll use our restaurant, but they will also use the other restaurants in town, they’ll go to the pharmacy, the cleaners, the local bakery and the coffee shops,” Bollerman said. “It’s a real economic driver for Highlands.”
That kind of relationship, which improves the borough’s outward image, is very important to the Highlands Business Partnership (HBP).
“I think there was a perception that Highlands was difficult to do business with, and I think we’re changing that perception,” said HBP president Carla Cefalo-Braswell. “We’re working very hard with the town officials to change that perception.”
Since 1999, the HBP has been a key player in helping local businesses along Bay Avenue, Highlands’ main street, achieve a better public impact; yet that is one tall task.
“The problem with Highlands’ main street, and I really want to emphasize this, is that we have so much residential mixed in with the commercial, so it’s very hard to have a main street,” she said. “We’re not Red Bank, we’re not Sea Bright.”
In the time since Sandy, advancements have also been made along the borough streets through the Neighborhood and Community Revitalization Streetscape Revitalization Grant Program. This program offers grants to municipalities to assist in rebuilding in commercial areas. Highlands is in the final phase of Streetscape improvements down Bay Avenue, effectively breathing new life into the area.
The borough received $2 million in funding for that Streetscape program from two government entities. The initial $1.5 million came from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, and the remaining $500,000 was part of a New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs program called the Downtown Business Improvement Zone, or DBIZ, fund.
Cefalo-Braswell says that by New Year’s Eve, the project will be complete with new sidewalks, curbs, street lights, benches, bike racks and trash receptacles.
“A lot of the programs that have been available post-Sandy have had a positive impact on the revitalization of our downtown,” she said.
Various other improvements have been made throughout Highlands, though with locals at the helm.
Tribar Services, Inc., which has had a heavy workload in the borough, recently helped clean up the area surrounding Veterans Park.
“Tribar did the labor, at no cost to the Highlands Business Partnership, and in exchange, he has his logo on all of our spectacular events,” Cefalo-Braswell said.
HBP also sanctioned a major art project on borough property, which has taken almost a year to complete.
Local artist Jimmy Kovic, known for the “Welcome to Sea Bright” mural on Ocean Avenue, has been hired by the Highlands Business Partnership, at $7,000, to decorate a blank wall winding down Miller Street towards the Highlands Fire Department.
“Since it was a main artery into town, we just felt ‘what better place?’” said Cefalo- Braswell. “There’s really not another wall like that coming into town.”
The mural depicts eight postcards, all displaying a piece of Highlands history, including a poem in script handwriting; a winter scene on the water as a train rolls down the tracks; the Twin Lights Lighthouses; and a ship nearing the Highlands shore with fall foliage on display.
As a whole, the Highlands arts scene has come a long way in the years since Sandy. As part of the Hurricane Sandy Recovery Committee, a FEMA-sponsored program, the Highlands Borough Arts Council (HBAC) was created in 2013.
“There’s something about Highlands,” said Maureen Welch, HBAC’s program and operations director. “Maybe it’s that combination of a little bit of edginess, then there’s this incredible natural beauty; and when you put those two as a combination, that can be a pretty exciting thing.”
With over 100 paid members, the HBAC, which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, works to enhance the relationship between the arts community and the rest of the borough through constant engagement.
Their most inclusive event of the year is scheduled for Oct. 29, when the 2nd Annual Highlands “Amazing Race” Scavenger Hunt takes place.
For 2016, the theme is “400 years of pirating around Sandy Hook.” In teams of four, participants will drive around to eight locations in Highlands where pirate culture or activities will be on display.
“We integrate the art and the history into one big event,” Welch said.
With all these improvements, it seems the dark memories of Sandy are behind the borough, with bright skies on the horizon.
“I do think that Highlands is on its way to becoming a very, very special community, and I think we’re just scratching the surface of its potential,” Bollerman said.
