Traders Cove Plans Still Await Green Acres Approval: Mayor

BRICK, NJ — Plans to build and open a restaurant at Traders Cove Marina in Brick will not come to fruition this summer, according to Brick Township Mayor John G. Ducey.

During Monday's Talking Brick Facebook Live session with residents, Ducey was asked about the status of the project and said the restaurant is on hold, awaiting Green Acres approval.

The Township Council accepted a bid last May by Chefs International, which operates the Lobster Shanty, the 9th Avenue Pier Bar & Restaurant in Belmar and other restaurants, to build a proposed 400-seat restaurant and bar on the township-owned portion of Traders Cove Marina and Park, which sits on the north side of Mantoloking Road near the base of the Mantoloking Bridge.

Brick Township officials have sought the restaurant as a way to get revenue out of the site, which former township chief financial officer Scott Pezarras, has said is costing the the township $1.155 million per year in debt service on bonds issued to cover the purchase of the site.

Ocean County owns the portion of the site closest to the bridge, and has turned it into a county park, complete with a fishing and crabbing pier on the footings of the old Mantoloking Bridge, which was replaced in 2006.

Brick Township has used its portion of the site for various outdoor events, including drive-in movie events, the annual Kitefest and others. The township's portion of the site includes the marina, which brings in revenue from slip rentals and boat storage at the site during the winter. In late February, the township council approved a bid to add more jet ski slips at the site, because the township had a lengthy waiting list of those seeking them.

But township officials had hoped the restaurant would provide more revenue, by way of a lease agreement, as soon as this summer, to help offset the debt service.

The proposal has been highly controversial from the start. Representatives of Save Barnegat Bay, the New Jersey Sierra Club and other environmental organizations criticized the plan as taking away bay access and not being in keeping with Green Acres rules. A Green Acres grant helped to partially fund the purchase of the site when the township, the county and a number of environmental groups sought to prevent a developer from building condominiums on the site in 2005.

At a September Green Acres meeting on the project, a number of residents criticized the restaurant proposal, citing concerns about increased traffic on Mantoloking Road in an area where they say traffic is already problematic. Other residents have repeatedly criticized the proposed lease agreement, both at the Green Acres meeting and at the council meeting where the lease initially was approved, saying the $75,000 base lease is not sufficient for the revenue the company is likely to receive.

Even Ocean County officials have criticized the project, with Freeholder John C. Bartlett Jr. delivering a message via Deputy County Administrator Michael Fiure, calling the proposal "a breach of faith" between the county and the township over an agreement settled years earlier that was "a cooperative relationship for public recreational facilities."

Ducey, in responding to the resident's question on Facebook Live, said the original plans have been scaled back to a smaller facility after the review by Green Acres officials. There have been other changes as well, he said.

"There was an electrical box in the middle of green field that (Green Acres officials said) had to be moved," Ducey said. The cost to move it is roughly $250,000, he said. "The township was not paying for that."

Ducey said Chefs International has agreed to pay for that as part of the project; everything is just waiting on approvals from Green Acres officials, the mayor said.

"Hopefully the restaurant will be open next summer," Ducey said.

Brick Mayor John G. Ducey with the original plans for the restaurant proposal at Traders Cove Marina. Photo by Karen Wall