Toms River spending $1.85M to buy old boat works building, killing restaurant plans

TOMS RIVER - The township has moved forward with plans to buy an old boat works on the Toms River for $1.85 million, after Township Council members introduced a bond ordinance to acquire the property.

"It is a great opportunity for us to step in," Mayor Daniel Rodrick said of the purchase. "We are talking about making it into a park, making it into a pier." The mayor said it will give residents more access to the Toms River, and expand downtown's Huddy Park, while preventing private development of the township's waterfront.

Councilman James Quinlisk voted against the acquisition, saying no "due diligence" has been done on the property. He said an environmental study of the old boat works is dated and has not been updated.

"We also don't have a written plan of what the mayor's plans are for the property," Quinlisk said.

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Rodrick pointed out that Quinlisk and Councilman David Ciccozzi, who abstained on the vote to acquire the property, had indicated their support for previous plans for a restaurant and banquet hall on the land. The mayor has suggested a marina and pier, with a concession stand, for the land, which will need to have new bulkheads installed.

A restaurant and banquet hall had been proposed on the property by Capodagli Property Co., the township's designated redeveloper for land at the corner of Main and Water streets. Capodagli has planning board approval to build two, six-story apartment towers on the parcel at Main and Water streets, although Mayor Daniel Rodrick has vowed to stop the controversial development.

Rodrick noted June 26 that Capodagli had withdrawn its proposal, which never came before the planning board. He said an environmental study of the property had indicated it was clean, but the township will do another study after the purchase is completed.

Plans for the old boat works never progressed behind the concept stage, but the township's purchase of the land will preclude development of the banquet hall, a parking garage and a proposed pedestrian bridge between the township parking deck and the Robbins Parkway land.

Rodrick, who won the mayor's race last year while running on a platform strongly opposed to "overdevelopment," has always opposed the apartment towers and banquet hall plans.

The buildings at 1 Robbins Parkway, next to the Toms River, originally housed a wooden boat construction business — with two marine railways into the river — founded by Anthony Irons and Capt. Ben Asay in 1919, according to a report on the property produced by former planner Dave Roberts.

The boat works shut down in 1972 and was sold to Lance and Mary Chambeau, who opened a business buying and selling used power boats there. The Chambeaus sold the property in November 1987.

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The Chambeau family — including Capt. Lance Chambeau Jr., his wife, Christina, and his son, Capt. Lance Chambeau III — operate The River Lady. The boat is docked near the old boat works building.

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The boat works buildings, owned by The CAM Trust of Point Pleasant, were badly flooded during Superstorm Sandy and have been vacant since. No repairs have been made to the buildings in the nearly 13 years since Sandy. Also included in the redevelopment area is a parking lot next to the two boat works buildings and a small house that was once operated as a law office.

The Township Council declared the area off Robbins Parkway to be in need of redevelopment in 2019. In 2022, Toms River held a public hearing on a proposal to remove the Huddy Park parking lot from the township's recreation and open space inventory, where Roberts said it appears to have been mistakenly placed.

A review of Toms River's 1979 Waterfront Redevelopment Plan designates the parking lot as a space for commercial use, like parking, and not as parkland, according to Roberts' April 21, 2021, memorandum to Joseph Baumann, the township's redevelopment attorney.

The township acquired the land that became the parking lot, along with nearby privately owned properties, as part of an Urban Renewal Project in the 1960s, Roberts wrote in his memo.

Jean Mikle covers Toms River, Seaside Heights and several other Ocean County towns. She's also passionate about the Shore's storied music scene. Contact her: @jeanmikle, jmikle@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Toms River buying boat works building, plans park and pier