Last Minute Changes to Brick Sports Complex Approved by Planning Board

A rendering of the updated appearance of the sports complex proposed for the former Foodtown parcel, Brick, N.J., Aug. 2023. (Credit: Planning Document)

As construction gets fully underway at the future indoor sports complex at the former Foodtown site on Route 70, the Brick Township planning board approved some last-minute changes that will allow the developer to add parking and realign some of the areas of the site.

The board last week approved an amendment to the property’s site plan that will allow its owner, LCP Sports Urban Renewal, to change the location, layout and design of the outdoor volleyball court recreation area to become a “flex space,” relocate a trash enclosure and emergency access lanes, plus make some minor changes to light poles and landscape plantings.

The board also approved a plan making the area that was previously occupied by the volleyball courts an additional 12 parking spaces, and the area where the previously-located trash enclosure was located, four additional parking spaces. The developers have also received approval from the township engineer to make other field changes that do not rise to the level of needing a site plan amendment, according to Township Planner Tara Paxton.

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Brick Township officials attend the groundbreaking for the indoor sports complex, June 2025. (Photo: Township of Brick)

The latest change was the third such site plan amendment for the site, long known as the “Sports Dome,” which is now a misnomer.

The complex was initially approved as a domed structure, similar to the “Superdome” the developer, Peter Tasca, operates in North Jersey. But the plans changed due to concerns over fire safety. Most bubbles-style domes, like those in the long-standing “Bennett Bubble” in Toms River and other privately-owned sports facilities across the state, exist on their own. The Brick Superdome bubble, however, was connected to traditionally-constructed buildings, which caused complications.

“In other places, a bubble standing alone acts as its own fire suppression system since the bubble falls, the oxygen is pushed out, and that extinguishes the fire,” said Township Planner Tara Paxton at the time of the first amendment. “With this project, since there are buildings located so closely nearby, that could not work. You would have to put sprinklers in the bubble, which you just can’t do.”

Ultimately the hybrid design of a dome and traditional building was converted to a single-building project with the same overall footprint as initially proposed.