FROM THE DAILY RECORD (Gannett Co., Inc.)
April 30, 2006
NANCY SHIELDS GANNETT NEW JERSEY
ASBURY PARK --"I started crying, got teary-eyed, and can't believe how it affected me," Sue Henderson, president of the Asbury Park Homeowners Association, said after the abandoned C-8 skeleton was imploded on the city's beachfront early Saturday morning.
"This is a symbol of rebirth. When people came in here from Spring Lake or Deal or Ocean or Neptune, they saw that structure and said it (the city's rebirth) wouldn't happen," Henderson said. "They even say it now, that it won't happen and we have two new buildings going up."
C-8, the unfinished condominium started 17 years ago, was taken down by Metro Homes of Hoboken, one of three developers constructing new condominiums on the waterfront. Metro will build the 224-unit Esperanza in its place on the oceanfront block between Third and Fourth avenues.
When people talk about the failed waterfront redevelopment that C-8 represents, it's not just about the blighted beachfront itself over the past two decades but what the increased impoverishment of a city meant for its residents and children trying to grow up here.
"This is the past going away,"said City Councilman John Loffredo, as he and many others watched the implosion.
Henderson said the city is moving ahead on many fronts the waterfront, the downtown, Main Street and Springwood Avenue.
The Rev. David J. Parreott Jr., a councilman from 1989 to 1993 when city officials could do little after the housing market crashed, said earlier in the week that it's especially important that residents now see a plan to improve the west side similar to the waterfront and downtown.
"I think C-8 coming down is going to make way for the future progress that's going to come," Parreott said. "I feel that Metro Homes is going to come in there and do the job they propose, and look at the other two Paramount Homes and Westminster Communities. Westminster may have people be able to move in in the next few months.
Concerns of west side
"The only concerns we have is what is the city going to do with the west side? That's the main thing, and hopefully they'll put something on the fast track over here," said Parreott, a member of both the city planning and zoning boards.
Dr. Angelo Chinnici, a city physician and former councilman, could see C-8 through the years from his Sunset Avenue office and home. He spent a short time in office in the mid-1990s trying to free the water-front and citizens from the massive New England bankruptcy of former waterfront developer Joseph Carabetta who built, then abandoned, C-8.
"C-8 was a grim reminder of what once was in the city," Chinnici, who saw the steel come down from his home, said. "It was a joyful experience to see that building come down. Hopefully, the future is very bright."
One person said she'll miss C-8. Rita Marano, who works across the street in her Kingsley Deli, a site that itself is slated for the new development in the waterfront plan.
"I'm going to miss it," Marano said. "I looked at it every day."
After the 7 a.m. implosion, Debbie DeLisa was serving Bloody Mary's with free oranges and muffins at Lance and Debbie's Wonder Bar near the C-8 site on Ocean Avenue. She left the bar at 3 a.m. Saturday and got up two hours later to come back.
"It's the beginning of the future of Asbury Park," she said. "Everyone deserves a lot of credit everyone who's believed in Asbury and kept their faith in this great town."