By Andrew Schmertz
Correspondent
It doesn’t look like it now, but this husband and wife team intend to turn an empty lot into a little bit of South Beach, Miami at the Jersey Shore.
“I wanted it to be fabulous and so we flew to Miami for ideas and inspiration and we came back with beautiful pictures of those buildings and we started to incorporate that for ourselves. We didn’t want to fly to Miami,” said Mimi Feliciano of Fem South Beach Urban Renewal, LLC.
This week the ceremonial groundbreaking took place on a 47-unit luxury condo complex being built by Mimi and Edwin Feliciano. The two have been working for years with the city, the Zoning Board and the community as part of the ongoing redevelopment of Long Branch.
“The reaction to this has been well accepted. It’s really what my wife and I have dreamt about — bringing resort living to New Jersey. Something that didn’t really exist,” Edwin Feliciano said.
The condos start at a million dollars, making them among the most expensive along the boardwalk. And since all the apartments face the ocean — with the building just a few feet away — the Felicianos say they are actually hiring designers with hurricane expertise from hurricane-prone Miami Beach.
Some residents say the redevelopment here has been frustratingly slow — decades in the making. There had been concern that some permanent residents would get pushed out by new upscale vacation homes.
To that point, the developers say eminent domain — where the government takes private property — was not used for this project.
One woman who has lived here for 33 years says it’s about time.
“The town has changed. It’s an all-year round town and the boardwalk is fabulous and we’re very excited by this,” she said.
Long Branch has seen a slow, often tepid revitalization. Recent projects — such as Pier Village — have created a vibrant downtown.
However, years of lawsuits, reports of financially shaky developers and a normally slow city government have put up obstacles to a speedy turnaround.
Still, the city is trying to boost its image. This spring it awarded a $2.4 million contract to a design firm to create plans for a ferry to New York City. And in June, the mayor said progress is finally being made with developers to clean up the Broadway section of the city.
Both residents and visitors are now seeing progress, at least along the ocean.
“The boardwalk is clean, it’s walkable. There’s more restaurants, there’s more to do here,” said West Long Branch resident Michelle Merola.
Still, this project has been slow as well. It’s been two years since the Zoning Board approved it.
Construction on the $40 million condo project is set to begin in a couple of weeks, with the doors opening in 20 months.