Sportsplex Coming To Brick Foodtown Site At Last

BRICK, NJ — Say goodbye to the empty parking lot and hello, sports complex: Brick Township has finalized the sale of the former Foodtown property to a pair of developers who plan to build a sports facility, stores and a retail complex on the site.

Brick Township closed on the final piece of the sale on Tuesday afternoon, Mayor John G. Ducey said at Tuesday's Township Council meeting. M&M Realty and LCP Sports LLC each paid $2.5 million for their shares of the property.

"The money is in the bank," Mayor John G. Ducey said at Tuesday's Township Council meeting. The property also now is back on the tax rolls.

The sale closed a chapter that began when Brick Township bought the property, once home to Foodtown and Bradlees, in 2003 for more than $6 million to prevent construction of a home improvement store. In 2009 the former Foodtown was demolished, but despite an agreement the following year to redevelop the site, it languished untouched until 2014, when the township sought to void the redevelopment agreement with M&M Realty Partners.

M&M initially proposed a hotel at the site, but changed to a proposal for residential units, a move the township ardently opposed before attempting to void the agreement.

That led to legal wrangling until early 2017, when township officials and M&M reached a settlement. The plan to turn it into a sports complex and retail site was announced soon after. It received approval from the state Department of Transportation in September 2017, and the Brick Township Planning Board approved the site plan in May 2019.

The remainder of the permitting process has taken two years.

Now that it's complete, LCP Sports LLC — the new name of the developer of sportsdome — and M&M Realty Partners can move forward with the construction.

The plan calls for a 68,400-square-foot domed facility with sports fields inside, a 27,600-square-foot basketball center, a 13,440-square-foot two-story building that will include offices and other facilities, and a pair of outdoor beach volleyball courts.

The retail portion of the site, owned by M&M Realty, includes a pad for a 4,300-square-foot restaurant with a drive-through, a 6,400-square-foot retail building and a nearly 23,000-square-foot retail building.

There will be 388 parking spaces total on the site.

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