Proposed $30M Hotel, Apartments Would Transform Point Pleasant Beach, Mayor Says

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ — A proposed $30 million hotel and apartment complex unveiled in Point Pleasant Beach is anticipated to transform downtown Point Pleasant Beach and bring needed revenue to the borough, officials said.

That transformation, however, will include a nod to the borough’s past, with facades and architecture that pay homage to the history both of the location and the town and maintain the small-town feel.

Point Pleasant Beach Mayor Paul Kanitra, with representatives of the borough’s Chamber of Commerce and Historic Preservation Commission and representatives of the two companies developing the project unveiled the artist’s rendering of a proposed Wyndham hotel and the luxury apartments on Arnold Avenue at Route 35.

The hotel would be part of Wyndham’s Trademark Collection, said Leo Danese, Wyndham’s brand leader for the division. The proposal is for 58 rooms, with boutique retail shops. It would occupy the property that had been the former Bank of America branch, which shut its interior operations four years ago and closed the ATMs at the site about two years ago, officials said.

Danese said with the Trademark Collection hotels, Wyndham works with the community to have a space that fits with the area. He said Wyndham had worked with the owner of the property for about a year to get to the point of unveiling the proposed project.

While 58 rooms seems small for a brand like Wyndham, Danese said the preference is for a hotel that will be fully occupied.

“Gone are the days of 200- to 300-room hotels that are half-empty,” he said.

The proposed Point Pleasant Beach hotel would not be the smallest Wyndham; that honor belongs to a 28-room Trademark Collection Wyndham in Belize.

“We don’t want cookie-cutter hotels,” Danese said. “We want it to be a special place with that local flair.”

The hotel will have that local flair with a facade that recalls the original bank that sat on the site: Ocean County National Bank, which occupied the property in 1902, said Greg Cox, chairman of the borough’s Historic Preservation Commission who also is the architect of the proposed hotel and the proposed apartment complex.

“We examined the building to see if any of it (the original building) could be saved, but unfortunately there was nothing worth saving,” Cox said. The original construction was covered over by an exposed aggregate (similar to concrete) in the 1960s, before historic preservation was common. Over the years, there were additions to the building and the exterior was covered again with foam and stucco.

So the hotel will pay tribute to the original bank with a large archway entry that faces toward Route 35, reminiscent of the archway of that first bank. There will be a number of exterior elements that tie back to the early 1900s to bring that historic quality to the forefront, Cox said.

That historic flair also will carry over to the proposed apartment complex, where Cox also is the architect. Both projects also have the same engineer, he said, which he said will help streamline the process when the projects go before the borough’s Planning Board.

Matt Lombardi of Lombardi Residential, said the proposal is for 28 luxury apartments over retail space. That project would be on the McLean Avenue at Route 35, the other end of the block from the hotel.

Lombardi said his group had been eyeing the location for about five years and was able to buy the property two years ago. Working with Wyndham will result in a more cohesive development, he said. The boutique retail would have a super trendy, upscale feeling, he said.

“The younger people, they want Instagrammable settings, and this will give it to them,” Danese said.

Kanitra said the proposed project would be the cornerstone of efforts to revitalize the downtown and fill the vacant storefronts, and would be an economic boost for the town, with $10 million in anticipated revenue and $400,000 in potential tax revenue for the borough’s $15 million budget.

James Ward, with the borough’s Chamber of Commerce, said the hotel is “an opportunity to turn daytrippers into overnight stays,” and the apartment complex a draw for new residents.

“This is proof positive that we’ve come a long way from all the vacancies that were here four years ago,” Ward said.

“This is a win-win for Point Pleasant Beach,” Kanitra said.