Hecht Trailers, Toms River, N.J. (Photo: Shorebeat)
A legendary Toms River business is closing after 98 years, with its inventory planned to be auctioned off to the public online over the next week.
Hecht Trailers, the family-founded trailer dealership that opened its door son Route 9 in 1928, is closing its doors, the company announced in a statement to Shorebeat on Wednesday. Its entire inventory and operating assets will be sold to the public in a timed online liquidation auction that will be end July 15, 2026. The items that are being auctioned off are listed at a website operated by A.J. Willner Auctions, which is managing the liquidation.
“For generations of contractors, landscapers, boaters, and haulers across Ocean County and beyond, Hecht Trailers has been a fixture, a business that grew from its Depression-era beginnings into one of New Jersey’s largest trailer dealerships, with the state’s largest indoor showroom and hundreds of trailers in stock,” the announcement said.
Hecht Trailers, Toms River, N.J. (Photo: Hecht Trailers)
Hecht Trailers, Toms River, N.J. (Photo: Hecht Trailers)
The property on which the business operated is slated to become the site of up to 50 homes, largely prompted by two zoning ordinances changes dating back nine years. In 2017, the township council adopted a zoning ordinance that cut the number of residences that could be built there, but settled a resulting lawsuit in 2020 that re-zoned the area back to higher density allowances. Mayor Daniel Rodrick, who was then a township council member, cast the lone dissenting vote, arguing at the time that the township should have seen the case through and not reversed its zoning change. At the time, the Hecht property was to be sold for $5 million to a corporate entity known as Lakewood Investments LLC, which also had an interest in an adjoining property.
The store officially closed in June, leading to questions circulating on social media as to its ultimate fate. The liquidation auction “offers buyers a rare opportunity,” the announcement said, offering hundreds of late-model trailers and dealership assets sold to the highest bidder, including enclosed cargo, utility, equipment, tilt-deck, gooseneck, drop-deck, watercraft, and aluminum trailers from leading manufacturers such as Big Tex, Pace, Haulmark, H&H, Bravo, Belmont, Load Rite, Wells Cargo, and Air-Tow. The sale also includes forklifts, material handling and shop equipment, pickup trucks, utility vehicles, parts inventory, and dealership support assets.
“Sales like this one don’t come along often,” said Harry Byrnes, principal at A.J. Willner Auctions. “This is nearly a hundred years of a working dealership, late-model inventory, not leftovers, going to the highest bidder. Whether you’re a contractor who needs one equipment trailer or a dealer looking at inventory in bulk, everything is on the block.”
The auction inventory can be seen at the A.J. Willner auction site. A public preview will be held Tuesday, July 14, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m at the property located at 2075 Route 9, Toms River. The auction itself begins at 11 a.m. the following day, July 15. A 15 percent premium will be charged to all online purchases.
