Council voted 6-0 to adopt the 90 Broadway Redevelopment Plan on July 10, designating the property an area in need of rehabilitation. Councilman Kirk Gerety was absent.
The property is adjacent to John F. Kennedy Memorial Park and includes three two-unit bayfront homes and an apartment building.
Development plans proposed by Exceler Building Solutions LLC call for 23 townhouses and two single-family homes on the property fronting Great Egg Harbor Bay, requiring an affordable housing element that is planned off-site.
Principals John Wolfington and Dan Metzler were initially seeking a five-year tax abatement but had rescinded that request.
The residents of the Highbank Apartments were informed Sept. 6, 2024, by property owner John Folz that they would have to vacate their homes by Dec. 31.
Folz, president of Point Property Holdings LLC, which bought the lot for $1.6 million from local real estate agent Alex Kazmarck in 2021, said having the tenants gone was a condition of the sale of the land. The property was listed for $3.2 million in September 2023.
Wolfington said in March there were about seven tenants remaining and that Folz had reached an agreement with some of them, given them additional free rent, returned their security deposits with interest and was allowing them to stay longer.
He said Folz told him he was not able to contact three of the tenants but had an agreement with the other four.
Levi Fox, a current and former candidate for City Council, is a longtime resident of the complex who is now being forced to find new accommodations.
He addressed City Council on July 10.
“I am here to point out the ways that I believe the city has mismanaged this process from the beginning and the consequences,” Fox said. “While there are many aspects of the redevelopment plan that I believe could legitimately be challenged, I want focus primarily on its impact on our community.”
Fox said part of the redevelopment plan titled relocation plan “perpetuates the convenient lie — no removal of low or moderate income households will occur with the implementation of this redevelopment plan.”
He said that while he and his wife may have found a new place, “the same cannot be said for those lower-income households that have already been displaced with the implementation of this plan.”
Fox said it was always the ultimate responsibility of the city under the local housing and redevelopment law to make sure that all residents being displaced through the process were relocated.
“Rather than taking accountability for its actions, the city throughout this process has attempted to ignore its state-level legal responsibility,” Fox said. “If this process had been better managed from the start, then 16 apartments would still be available while more affordable housing units are being constructed.”
Fox said he and other residents of the complex have been characterized as transients and squatters, noting they have names, families and various lifestyles.
“I will say our next-door neighbors for 14 years are doing OK in Woodbine, even though one works at Shore (Medical Center). Our downstairs neighbors found an apartment in town, but the rent is higher,” Fox said. “I think Debbie and Wes, who lived in building D for a dozen years, were able to find a place locally. Charlie was my neighbor for over a decade. He found a place in EHT he could afford to stay with his son. Leah moved in with her boyfriend. Joe moved back with his mom.
“I’m not sure what happened to the young couple with a child and another on the way, but I was told they may have been eligible for veterans housing after they were forced out in January.
“From Building B next door, one person is renting a room in someone’s house, and another got her son to help her pay for a spot in a trailer park.
“Lisa, the crossing guard from Building A, had to go on disability so she would be eligible for a place in Ventnor she could afford.
“And then there are Bob the veteran and Allison, his caretaker, which I told you about in the spring but was later informed may not be the most sympathetic pair because Bob panhandles. My wife ran into Allison this past week and was told they are now unhoused, adding to the growing issue of homelessness in our community. These are the consequences of the plan.”
Council also adopted a resolution authorizing a redevelopment agreement with Exceler.
Resident John Helbig asked whether the agreement includes any type of tax break for the developer or buyers of the units and was told that it does not.
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff