By Laura D.C. Kolnoski
The new owner of Barker Circle wants to turn Fort Monmouth’s Kaplan Hall into an art facility as part of a mixed-use redevelopment plan heading to the Oceanport Planning Board.
OCEANPORT – Three days after its sale, the doors of the long-shuttered Barker Circle section of Fort Monmouth opened exclusively to The Two River Times for a tour of the past – and a glimpse of a future that includes a restaurant and an arts facility.
The purchase of the roughly 20-acre property, located inside the Oceanport Avenue gates along Route 537 (Avenue of Memories through the fort) by Barker Circle Partnership, LLC (BCP) was announced Nov. 2 by the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA). The original purchase and sale agreement was executed in September 2019 The 20-acre site includes seven buildings all located within the fort’s historic district and therefore subject to historic preservation covenants. The developer’s plans, which include adaptively reusing all the structures, are expected to go before the Oceanport Planning Board by the end of November. The purchase price was $4.85 million. Barker Circle Partnership LLC is expected to invest at least $22 million in the overall project. Seventy construction and/or temporary jobs, as well as 40 permanent jobs, are projected. Once the municipal approval process is successfully completed, work will begin immediately, according to a BCP spokesperson. Four of the buildings that served as U.S. Army barracks will be completely renovated into 75 two-bedroom apartment/flat rental units. Fifteen of those, or 20 percent, will be affordable housing.
The seven historic buildings that comprise Fort Monmouth’s Barker Circle area will be renovated and reused for residences and commercial space.
The fort’s former firehouse will become a one-story restaurant with office/administration space upstairs. Kaplan Hall, which originally was the base’s movie theater before being converted to the Army Communications-Electronics Command museum, is slated to house an art gallery with a retail element, studio space and a café. Artists will be able to make and sell their works on site, the spokesperson said. One building, which was renovated previously, will be used for office space. BCP is simultaneously nearing completion of its other Fort Monmouth project, The Loft in the 1940s Dance Hall, a short distance away. Inside the two front bay doors of the 6,000-square- foot brick firehouse are 20- foot ceilings and a fire pole the spokesperson said will be incorporated into the restaurant’s design. While no name or concept has been revealed yet, BCP will seek a concessionaire’s liquor license issued by New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control for an annual fee, as it is leasing the land from the state. The permit issued allows a business entity to sell, serve and deliver alcoholic beverages for immediate consumption on the premises.
The concessionaire’s license is separate from The Loft. While the firehouse had a small kitchen at the rear, an entirely new, modern kitchen will be created for the restaurant. All seven buildings are constructed of concrete and steel, features BCP and other developers have said makes them suitable for reuse. The exterior of one of the residential buildings has already been painted in the proposed color scheme, which gained approval from the Historic Preservation Office of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Changing roof shingles and having black windows are among allowable changes. The ghostly interior of the 7,000-square-foot Kaplan Hall was flooded with natural light when the doors opened to reveal a segmented lobby area leading to the museum portion of the theater area. The spokesperson explained that to create the museum, builders installed a flat wood floor over the original sloped one of the 500-seat theater. The developer will gut the entire space, which has 25- foot ceilings.
Developer BCP LLC intends to incorporate the fire pole into the design of a new restaurant in Fort Monmouth’s original firehouse.
Before COVID-19, BCP intended to recreate a new movie theater there with the former owner of the Showroom Cinema in Asbury Park. The Showroom was sold during the pandemic (new owners recently reopened it), and BCP abandoned that plan. Plans to turn six other barracks buildings just west of Barker Circle into a live-work artists’ community, planned for over five years, ended earlier this year when the proposed purchaser terminated his purchase agreement with FMERA. “This developer (BCP) has already made a significant investment at the fort with The Loft project,” said Sarah Giberson FMERA marketing & development manager. “We expect to see the same level of attention and ingenuity employed in the redesign of (the Barker Circle) historic buildings.” Since FMERA’s formation by the state almost a decade ago, 30 parcels, or nearly 80 percent of the fort’s 1,126 acres, have been sold or are under contract, in negotiations or entering the request for proposals process.
Another seven parcels are currently under contract or have FMERA approved contracts. Residents are already living in new fort developments in Oceanport and Tinton Falls while commercial redevelopments including the Fort Athletic Club and the Marina at Oceanport restaurant are fully operating with more on the way. “The redevelopment of Barker Circle will not only provide premium residential units to a community that is experiencing high demand but will also generate critical tax revenue for the Borough of Oceanport,” said FMERA executive director Bruce Steadman. “It will also activate one of the premium sites that once served as a destination for visitors and those stationed at Fort Monmouth.”Echoing others, the spokesperson for BCP said the developer would welcome a new Netflix film/production facility on the 289-acre fort Mega Parcel currently up for bid. Netflix confirmed it is bidding on the site last month. A number of firms are submitting bids for that property, due Jan. 12, 2022.
The article originally appeared in the November 11 – 17, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
