Brick Schools Sell Laurelton School At Last

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township Board of Education has approved a contract for the sale of the Laurelton School, for more than $1.2 million.

The sale, to Apex Realty Investment LLC of Edison, followed a 26-hour online auction by Max Spann Real Estate and Auctions.

Apex Realty Investment LLC was incorporated on April 27, 2022, according to the New Jersey Department of Revenue. Its principal is Mihir Patel of Edison, according to Bizapedia. There are a number of Apex Realty references in Google and it appears the company provides access for people to invest in real estate, particularly residential properties, though it does some commercial as well.

The Laurelton School property sits in the B-3 highway development zone, which the Max Spann listing noted is zoned for long- and short-term care medical facilities, office, retail, restaurant, microbrewery, distribution, etc.

The district had tried to auction off the property in September 2019, with a minimum bid of $620,000, which was the assessed value of the property at the time. That auction produced no bidders for the building that dates back to 1934, and the district had planned to hold another auction later.

The sale price of $1,237,000 is nearly double the 2019 assessment, and the sale is anticipated to close by mid-June.

The contract and the listing noted the school property was being sold as-is, which means the buyer had to accept the building in the condition it exists and deal with any issues in the building.

The Laurelton site had been home to a school since approximately the 1870s, according to documents filed with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

It served as an elementary school for decades, but by the early 1980s was used as the district's alternate school for students struggling in the regular high school setting. It was completely shut down after the 2007-08 school year.

The property on Route 88 where the school sits was subdivided in a move approved by the Brick Township Planning Board in January and formalized in February 2019. That subdivision created two lots; one fronts on Route 88 with the Laurelton School, the other fronts on Princeton Avenue, where the district's storage building is located. The Princeton Avenue parcel was not sold.

The building was deemed not eligible for designation as a historic site because the structure had been built too recently, according to the DEP documents.

Proposals to sell the property had been floated several times since the school closed in 2008, to no avail. The district first talked about subdividing the property in 2011, but previous proposals to do so failed to pass muster with the planning board.

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