SO Native Tim McLoone Named Vendor for South Mountain Restaurant

McLoone's Restaurants, a New Jersey shore-based business, will partner with Essex County to open a boathouse eatery in South Mountain Recreation Complex off Northfield Avenue.

The $4 million, 18,000 square-foot restaurant will overlook Orange Reservoir and seat about 240 people inside and another 80 to 100 outside.

"We will be out to bid by Jan. 15 ... by March 1, we will have the first shovel in the ground and by July 1, we will be having lunch or dinner at McLoone's," said Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo Jr.

Tim McLoone, owner of the restaurant group that currently operates six eateries, including five in New Jersey and one in Maryland, said the partnership started with an advertisement.

"I got an envelope from the New Jersey Restaurant Associaiton ... and this piece of paper pops out for a request of information for a restaurant in Essex County," he said. "And here we are six months later."

McLoone, a former Essex County resident, said opening a restaurant in the county brings him back to his roots.

"When I was four years old, my father moved to East Orange from Staten Island and we lived on the grounds of Veterans Hospital," he said. "My dad then moved us to Orange, then South Orange and I went to Our Lady of Sorrows and Seton Hall Prep ... had my prom at the Short Hills Caterers ... I'm an Essex County boy."

McLoone said before the restaurant opens, he will spend about $1 million on the project.

The county will collect $22,500 in rent per month from the restaurant.

DiVincenzo said all revenue collected from the boathouse restaurant, as with the complex's other outlets, goes to Turtle Back Zoo.

He said the $4 million for the project won't affect taxpayers because the cash is from $20 milllion in capital dollars the county has alloted for improvements.

"This is about economic development," he said. "We cannot wait for the federal government. We cannot wait for the state. We got to do it ourselves."

Mike Piga, of French and Parrello in Wall, one of the project's architect, said the firm plans to improve the area by placing an 8- to 10-foot pathway that connects McLoone's to Orange Reservoir and the zoo.

"We will replant the areas with natural, vegetitative plants ... where there's downed trees, we'll be taking the trees out and when you get to the zoo (from the path), there will be a nice gate to have access right to the zoo," he said. "We're trying to make this one cohesive design and one recreational complex."

Gregory Comito, of Comito Associates, a Newark-based architctural firm also assigned to the project, said the area is "a piece of Colorado" in New Jersey.

"It will have enough variety and excitement in itself as a building that the nature is just going to be an added bonus," he said.

As part of the project, the county plans to have water activities, such as kayaking and paddle boating, on the waterway in Orange Reservoir. Patrons would be able to rent the boats for an undetermined amount of time. The equipment will be stored below the restaurant's deck.

DiVincenzo said, though, the county does not yet have a lease for Orange Reservoir, but is working with the city to obtain one within the next month.

"We plan to sit down with Mayor (Eldridge) Hawkins (Jr.) and show him the plans we have from the waterway to Turtle Back Zoo and how we're going to clean up that whole area," he said.

Hawkins was unavailable for comment.

The boathouse restaurant is part of the $4.8 million, 36-acre South Mountain Recreation Complex renovation, which includes miniGOLF Safari, Turtle Back Zoo, Richard J. Codey Arena, a three-story Park N Ride facility and a 300-space surface parking lot, which was built in conjunction with miniGOLF Safari.

DiVincenzo said the entire $4.8 million was paid for by the county's economic development funds.