How Will People Get To The Long Branch Pier?
By Art Gallagher
Long Branch is spending $3.7 million in federal taxpayers’ dollars, courtesy of Porky Pallone, for designs of a possible 900 foot pier to extend into the Atlantic Ocean.
The pier would be a transportation hub with a ferry terminal for commuters going to New York and an entertainment center with restaurants, retail, a theater, etc. The costs are estimated to be anywhere between $46 million and $92 million before overruns which would be financed with federal and state taxpayers dollars and pie in the sky leases on the entertainment center. Let’s call the project Xanadu South.
The Asbury Park Press reported that Long Branch officials have been lobbying adjacent governments and other agencies to support the proposal. Asbury Park officials were enthusiastic and Woolley has made presentations to the Monmouth County freeholders, NJ Transit, the Monmouth County Planning Board and the economic development committee of the Monmouth/Ocean Development Council.
The APP quotes Long Branch administrator as saying “Everybody has said “This is a great idea, we see value in it.”
I can understand why Asbury Park officials would be enthused. I’m not so sure that Deal residents would be enthused by all the new traffic along Ocean Ave between Long Branch and Asbury Park.
I’ll let others debate the merits and financing of the actual project, for the moment. What concerns me is how will people get there? Traffic on Route 36 from Highlands to Eatontown is already a nightmare. NJ DOT is finishing up a $140 million + Route 36 bridge project over the Shrewsbury now. The eight lane bridge connects 4 lanes of Route 36 in Highlands to two lanes of Route 36 in Sea Bright.
When is the Route 36 expansion project going to be announced?
How much land will be taken via eminent domain in Highlands, Sea Bright, Monmouth Beach, Long Branch (both Ocean Ave and Joline Ave), Oceanport and Eatontown? Will the expansion extend along to Bayshore through Atlantic Highlands, Middletown, Union Beach, Keansburg and Keyport to the Garden State Parkway on the north? Will it extend through Tinton Falls to the Garden State Parkway and Route 18 in the south?
Will there also be a Route 18 expansion project to connect Long Branch to New Brunswick and all the towns in between?
Is the Long Branch pier project the next step to turning Monmouth County into Bergen County with beaches?
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Bergen County with beaches? I dunno, maybe more like Hudson County with beaches? I think the project is actually much worse than it even appears.
A few months ago I attended the mayor’s self-admitted dog and pony show of the pier project. I don’t have my notes with me at the moment but essentially the $42m to $92m projection doesn’t even include the cost to actually run a ferry, just to build the terminal, and the ferry itself is the heart of the project without which the city can’t get some of the federal or state grants (taxpayer money) it needs to pay for the project. The city expects to get grants (tax payer money) for most of the costs but really the city would have to apply for, and receive, so many different grants and the truth
is they probably won’t get EVERY grant that they are counting on. At the lease rates they are planning, it takes something like 30 years at fully leased space on the pier to pay off the remaining balance. Worth noting that the previous several piers didn’t last so long, their cost/proposals don’t include maintenance/repairs due to damages and there doesn’t appear to be a single other example of a project with an ocean pier + ferry in the world, never mind an example of an ocean pier+ferry in the North Atlantic that stands through the storms, tides and currents that come through.
My understanding at the time of the presentation was that the pier project being described at up to $92m is for construction of a pier/ferry terminal alone, possibly with an outdoor pavilion/stadium/concert hall ,similar to Jones Beach ,along with some small leasable space for stores and eateries on the pier. There was no mention of if/how a pier might impact beach usage for swimmers, fishermen, etc nor how it would impact beach erosion or beach replenishment projects that keep the sand on the beaches. There was also no answer to the question of what happens on those winter days when the ferry can’t run due to ice and if/how those lost revenue days impact the operation – and a ridership agreement between ferry riders and NJT would have to be negotiated separately through the ferry operator and NJT.
Overall, it’s another project that really sounds very nice and I think could bring some added value to the city. But among the many problems are that the mayor and Woolley, who I have to say seems to be really pushing this pier project hard, harder than the mayor even, seem to have an “if we build it they will come” attitude towards the ferry, which again, seems to be key to the access to funds yet is being largely ignore in the cost projections. There has been no commitment by a ferry operator to actually operate a ferry from the pier and in fact when I was asking questions about the ferry, Woolley joking asked if I intended to buy in and run such a ferry – I politely told him I didn’t think anyone could make even a dime nor did I think anyone with brains would invest in this project, he didn’t seem thrilled with me.
So anyway – suppose someone does build a pier, here is Woolley’s projection – he believes a ferry operator can charge $15 each way which is what a one-way NJT train ride costs. He estimated 45-50 minute ferry vs a 70-90 minute train ride. He couldn’t tell me if we could just invest in an express train service from NYPenn to Long Branch and points south for cheaper than $92m and a similar commute time. Woolley also projects less than 900 riders per day on at most 6 round trip ferry rides each day. At 900 riders and $30RT, that is $27,000/day or $4500/ferry trip which Woolley believes is more than enough to be profitable after paying salary, vessel/fuel cost, docking costs, etc. I don’t know enough about boats but I have to think fuel costs (I had the number for fuel cost projections written down but don’t have it handy) are a large part of the cost – my math says that the ferry operator would be operating at a barely break even point or at a significant loss. Also, I don’t know what happens to the state/taxpayers who have already invested in NJT rail costs when 900 less people are buying NJT train tickets and are taking the ferry instead. For that matter, I have to think that the number 900 is a best guess, I’m not sure what/how he came to that number as an estimate.
There is also a parking problem in Long Branch/Pier Village to begin with. Right now, today, business owners complain that in the summer, too many people park, for free, all day and go to the beach and there is no place for customers to park. Woolley is already saying that he plans to get parking meters in the lots at PV. He also wants to pave parking lots in other places in the city and run bus/shuttle service from those lots to the ferry – but again – there is no such shuttle from the train to PV now, because there is no value in it now just like there won’t be value in it, at $30RT, later. The parking meters might bring in some extra money for the city, it might also upset a few locals who already view PV as an exclusive/upscale destination for out-of-towners and not something for the people of Long Branch. I asked if there might be shuttle service from the pier to Monmouth Park either for race goers or to just use the vast parking facilities there for ferry riders but it seems that a 2 mile shuttle ride is too far for Woolley to consider reasonable – I suppose the value in bringing people into Long Branch on a ferry and out to Oceanport to gamble is also not reasonable.
All this pier project talk aside, there are a number of other projects happening, or not in Long Branch – the lower Broadway project has gone nowhere and downtown looks worse now than it did 10 years ago. The hotel project has gone no where – and the hotel really does do a great job of making the beachfront look and feel exciting – but the improvements they planned to make went no where and a small restaurant and some houses have already been taken over and the lot turned into a dirt/mud parking lot. With so many unfinished, expensive projects in the works, I just can’t understand trying to take on yet another expensive project. Private investors don’t have the money, or don’t see the value in investing in the area, I’m not sure that I, as a taxpayer, want to invest in the area if the smarter, private folks don’t want to invest.
..but to your original point – take a drive down 36 from Ocean Ave to Monmouth Park – one narrow lane with houses set back only a few feet from the highway- would be a lot of houses to move to make 36 wider there — mine included.
Bottom line -if it was a good idea a private developer would do it.