{"id":18130,"date":"2025-11-04T02:11:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T07:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=18130"},"modified":"2025-11-04T02:11:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T07:11:44","slug":"as-work-gets-underway-for-hovnanian-development-in-seaside-heights-a-slight-change-of-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2025\/11\/as-work-gets-underway-for-hovnanian-development-in-seaside-heights-a-slight-change-of-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"As Work Gets Underway for Hovnanian Development in Seaside Heights, A Slight Change of Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A 24-unit townhome community proposed in Seaside Heights by builder K. Hovnanian. View from Lincoln Avenue. (Courtesy: Mike Loundy)<\/p><\/div>\n

The first steps of the construction of a 24 townhome development by builder K. Hovnanian in Seaside Heights is getting underway about two months after the company closed on the property in the southern part of the borough where it will be located, but the renowned development firm had one request before shovels hit the ground: relief from a requirement in the borough’s redevelopment agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Seaside Heights planning board voted 4-3 Monday night in favor of granting a waiver for one a requirement that seems minor at first glance, but drew concern from some board members. The waiver will allow Hovnanian to use vinyl siding on all elevations, “as they feel it will be more aesthetically pleasing and have continuity in the appearance of the buildings,” a memorandum from the borough said. In the redevelopment agreement for the community \u2013 which is being built in the parcel that once was home to the now-demolished\u00a0Offshore Motel<\/a> at the Boulevard and Dupont Avenue \u2013 it was mandated that “stone, brick, and fiber cement panel systems are the preferred materials for street facing elevations.” Vinyl siding was expressly prohibited to be used for street-facing elevations. The company’s representatives said Monday night that they are ready to solicit bids for construction materials and preferred to use vinyl \u2013 at least in a modern form that emulates other materials.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A 24-unit townhome community proposed in Seaside Heights by builder K. Hovnanian. View from the Boulevard. (Courtesy: Mike Loundy)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Offshore<\/a>

Offshore Motel, Seaside Heights, N.J., Sept. 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)<\/p><\/div>\n

The prohibition on vinyl for portions of the buildings came from a desire on the part of borough officials who saw other materials as higher-end and less prone to wear in the coastal environment. Hovnanian, according to testimony, had always favored vinyl, but agreed to comply with the redevelopment plan’s specifications when they were adopted by the borough council.<\/p>\n

“We capitulated at the time, but we would like relief at this time since we\u2019re going out to bid,” said Carl W. Erler, an attorney representing Hovnanian.<\/p>\n

The request led to resistance from some board members, including Thomas Faragalli, who expressed concern after seeing vinyl siding at his own home deteriorate and need replacement due to the harsh coastal environment. He questioned whether the material could withstand the weather and remain in place after the builder turned the development over to a homeowners’ association.<\/p>\n

“Vinyl siding doesn\u2019t do well on this island,” he said. “I think you guys should consider sticking with the higher-end stuff \u2013 I think it will look better down the road.”<\/p>\n

Joseph Lipanovski, an architect with Hovnanian, countered that numerous other projects in town include vinyl siding on all sides, and the latest products on the market closely resemble other materials and are able to withstand the elements at a lower cost. Since other portions of the building would utilize vinyl siding, switching to a different material on one side could actually take away from its aesthetic appeal, he added. Lipanovski said prices for the units have not yet been determined, but they would by “in the $700,000 range.”<\/p>\n

“The reason we always contemplated it is because we wanted to maintain standard consistency of the material,” he told board members. “Turning around to the rear, which is fairly highly visible, from all aspects of the community, we wanted to make sure that the uniformity in style is maintained throughout the four sides of the building.”<\/p>\n

Lipanovski said vinyl siding is “by far, the predominant material” in new construction in town.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A 24-unit townhome community proposed in Seaside Heights by builder K. Hovnanian. View from the corner of Lincoln Avenue and the Boulevard. (Courtesy: Mike Loundy)<\/p><\/div>\n

Erler said the exterior appearance of vinyl versus alternative materials were so close that renderings of the future townhomes could not even be changed to reflect the difference. Indeed, some board members went on to express their surprise at the quality of samples passed out at the meeting, and how well they mimicked other materials at a lower price.<\/p>\n

The board’s 4-3 approval of the somewhat-minor change effectively signaled the final leg of preparations before the company’s multi million dollar investment into the borough would come to fruition. Surrounding the buildings, Hovnanian plans to add flora to the site and will rebuild curbs and drive aisles that are reflective of the borough\u2019s redevelopment plans, as well as the county\u2019s design of the Boulevard business district\u2019s sidewalks. There will be concrete curbing and sidewalks installed along the side streets and granite-block curbing along the Boulevard. Altogether, Hovnanian will plant 48 trees, 130 shrubs and a buffer between the complex and its residential neighbors.<\/p>\n

Hovnanian paid $4.7 million for the property and plans to invest $16.4 million into the construction 24-unit townhome community, representing one of the largest investments of its kind in borough history. The timeline for construction \u2013 which is also governed by the redevelopment agreement between the company and the borough \u2013 calls for the first building to be constructed before the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first steps of the construction of a 24 townhome development by builder K. Hovnanian in Seaside Heights is getting underway about two months after the company closed on the property in the southern part of the borough where it will be located, but the renowned development firm had one request before shovels hit the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[1959,2322,1388,81,20,2684],"class_list":["post-18130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seaside-government","category-seaside-heights","tag-featured","tag-k-hovnanian-homes","tag-offshore-motel","tag-redevelopment","tag-seaside-heights-nj-news","tag-the-views-at-seaside-heights"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/khov_lincoln_view.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-4Iq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18131,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18130\/revisions\/18131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}