By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
The $7 million sale of nine vacant lots that were once the site of a gas manufacturing plant operating in Sea Isle City more than 100 years ago has received final approval by a state regulatory agency.
All of the property was sold as one package to a local development group called Noodles 1 LLC and will be the site of housing construction.
Although the land was sold during an online auction last March, the transaction was pending final approval by the state Board of Public Utilities because the property was owned by the utility company Jersey Central Power & Light and required environmental cleanup.
Altogether, the property consists of 1.19 acres in the area of 39th Street and Central Avenue and 40th Street and Central, only about a block and a half from Sea Isle’s downtown business district, Promenade and beaches.
In order to receive state regulatory approval to sell the land, JCP&L had to clean up contaminates stemming from a gas manufacturing plant that operated in Sea Isle from 1889 to the 1920s.
One of the Board of Public Utilities commissioners expressed surprise that JCP&L even had a presence in Sea Isle decades ago.
“I didn’t realize JCP&L was in Sea Isle City. That was interesting to find out,” Commissioner Dianne Solomon said. “This dates back a long time that they were in Cape May (County). It’s a bit of history there.”
Solomon joined with the rest of the commissioners to give the property sale unanimous approval during the BPU’s Oct. 26 meeting in Trenton.
JCP&L bought the former gas manufacturing plant in 1926 and had the responsibility of remediating the remnants of coal tar and oil that were found in the soil and groundwater, according to a document describing the property sale.
Since 1987, JCP&L has conducted environmental investigations of the site while working on cleanup plans in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the document said.
The cleanup of soil and groundwater contamination opened the door for JCP&L to sell the land.
Nick Preuhs, a Sea Isle realtor with Long & Foster who was involved with the sale, said the local development group Noodles 1 LLC beat out four other bidders to buy the land. The principals of Noodles 1 have not yet been made public.
The land is residentially zoned for single-family homes or duplexes, also known as side-by-sides. Preuhs said the developer is expected to build duplexes to maximize the value of the property.
“The plan is to build residential. It’s most likely going to be side-by-sides at some point,” he said Wednesday.
Now that the BPU has signed off on the sale, Preuhs has been trying to organize settlement dates between JCP&L and the buyers.
The property is comprised of nine full-size residential/multi-family parcels each ranging from 5,500 square feet to 6,050 square feet, except for two lots at 209-211 40th Street that have been combined to measure a total of 11,000 square feet.
The largest piece of property included in the sale is a grassy parcel wedged in between existing homes along 40th Street between Central and Cini avenues. It is surrounded by a padlocked chain-link fence.
Another parcel that was part of the package of land is located at the corner of 39th and Central in the shadow of Sea Isle’s municipal water tower.
The site at the corner of 39th and Central also includes a padlocked chain-link fence. It used to have a sign that said, “Environmental cleanup in progress at this site. Sea Isle City former manufactured gas plant.” The sign has since been removed.
Another smaller parcel that was part of the sale is at the corner of 40th and Central.
In a shore town where many homes are squeezed into tiny lots, more than an acre of land in Sea Isle represents a significant piece of property.
Separate from the land sale, JCP&L also sold off four homes it owned adjacent to the auctioned property. The homes were once privately owned, but JCP&L purchased them after the discovery of soil contamination stemming from the old gas plant.
The contamination has been cleaned up and the homes are considered safe, allowing them to be sold by JCP&L, Preuhs said.
In a series of separate votes at its Oct. 26 meeting, the BPU gave final regulatory approval to JCP&L’s sale of the four homes to private buyers.
They included both units of a duplex at 220 40th Street for $1.450 million, both units of a duplex at 214 39th Street for $1.52 million, a never-occupied condo unit at 207 40th Street for $1.3 million, and two condo units in the same building at 218 39th Street for $525,000 each.
Preuhs, who was also involved with the sale of the homes, said most of them sold for the list price or close to it. The exception was the condo unit at 207 40th Street, which attracted a bidding war and was sold above the asking price.
All of the homes were priced at under-market value, Preuhs said.
The homes went up for sale at a time when Sea Isle’s real estate market was red hot earlier in 2022. Reflecting a boom fueled by low mortgage rates, a surging stock market before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the shore being seen as a safe haven from the COVID-19 pandemic, Sea Isle has become a million-dollar housing market.
The median sale price for homes in Sea Isle has jumped well above $1 million and shows no signs of significantly slowing down because demand is high and inventory is low, realtors say.
