{"id":3803,"date":"2020-02-12T02:46:02","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T07:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=3803"},"modified":"2020-02-12T02:46:02","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T07:46:02","slug":"mediator-hired-as-talks-continue-for-sale-of-joey-harrisons-surf-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2020\/02\/mediator-hired-as-talks-continue-for-sale-of-joey-harrisons-surf-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Mediator Hired as Talks Continue for Sale of Joey Harrison’s Surf Club"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The former Joey Harrison\u2019s Surf Club property, March 12, 2019. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Negotiations are continuing into a new phase as Toms River township officials look to purchase the former Joey Harrison\u2019s Surf Club property and turn it into a public beach and boardwalk.<\/p>\n

Ortley Beach residents have been heavily lobbying the township to purchase the property, and the state has committed to fund in upwards of $6 million for the project through the Blue Acres program, while Toms River officials said they will invest between $1 million and $2 million into improvements at the site. But the owner of the property, the Barcelona family, have not accepted the township\u2019s appraisal of the site at $6.3 million, causing talks to stall.<\/p>\n

To break the deadlock, the nonprofit Ortley Beach Voters and Taxpayers Association agreed to hire a mediator at its own expense. Meetings have already been planned and will include township officials; OBVTA members said they are simply financing the mediation and not participating in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re about $1.2 million between what the Barcelonas want for the property and what the state and the township are willing to pay,\u201d said Township Administrator Don Guardian.<\/p>\n

Ortley Beach residents are continuing their effort to lobby the township to buy the property.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is vital,\u201d said Annette Tomarrazzo, a Coolidge Avenue resident. \u201cThis is a gift to Toms River \u2013 a $6.8 million gift from the state of New Jersey. This may be the last public open space along the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Township officials say the property, which housed the legendary nightclub and a number of residential spaces, would be developed with a boardwalk which would connect the two portions that exist now. There would also be the opportunity for recreational space.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe desire is the same,\u201d said Guardian. \u201cThe Barcelonas want it sold, the township wants to buy it, the state wants the township to have it. It\u2019s a once-in-a-lifetime deal and we hope we can find a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Negotiations are continuing into a new phase as Toms River township officials look to purchase the former Joey Harrison\u2019s Surf Club property and turn it into a public beach and boardwalk. Ortley Beach residents have been heavily lobbying the township to purchase the property, and the state has committed to fund in upwards of $6 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[808,30,11],"class_list":["post-3803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","tag-joey-harrisons-surf-club","tag-ortley-beach","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/IMG_9059.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}