| Archived
7/6/2006
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 06/14/06
Deal closed for Route 70 hotel complex in Lakewood
WHO: Lakewood Industrial Commission
WHAT: The agency has completed the sale of a vacant 12-acre tract along Route 70 to Parkway Lodging Realty LLC, an affiliate of Hotels Unlimited, an East Windsor company that runs several hotels in the region, including the Holiday Inn on Route 37 in Dover Township. The sale price of the land - near the Brick boundary and east of the Garden State Parkway - was $2.25 million.
CONTEXT: The sale means construction can begin on a complex that will include a 110-room Hilton Garden Inn and two nationally franchised restaurant chains, Ruby Tuesday and LongHorn Steakhouse. Both chains have several locations in Monmouth County. The Lakewood sites would be each company's first foray into Ocean County, according to a list of restaurant locations on the companies' respective Web sites.
A coffee/breakfast shop also is in negotiations to open at the site.
REACTION: Russell K. Corby, executive director of the Lakewood Development Corp., said the construction will generate more than $15 million in new ratables and create up to 175 new job opportunities.
"It's a very positive step forward for Lakewood Township," Committeeman Charles Cunliffe said in a prepared statement. "The hotel and the restaurant complex moves the entire town in the right direction."
WHAT TOOK SO LONG? The project received Planning Board approval in July 2005, but negotiations and "regulatory and infrastructure issues" delayed the real estate closing, Cunliffe said.
WHAT'S NEXT: Construction on the site could begin this fall, with the restaurants opening later next year, according to Carey Tajfel, vice president and director of business development for Hotels Unlimited. Work on the hotel is expected to start in the fall of 2007. It would open the following year, Tajfel said.
Richard Quinn
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