By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
A prime piece of downtown property overlooking Sea Isle City’s Landis Avenue corridor at the corner of 42nd Street has been vacant ever since two stores that once occupied the site were destroyed by fire in 2016.
The property has essentially been serving as an exclusive parking lot since then for a faded old red truck with the words “Sea Isle City” written on the side. The privately owned truck has been there for so long that it has become a local landmark.
But in coming months, the truck may have to find another parking spot. Bill McGinn, a broker with RE/MAX Preferred, said there are plans to redevelop the land into a mixed-use project combining commercial space with four residential units.
McGinn, who is also a member of Sea Isle’s Zoning Board, said in a text message Monday that the developers are expected to file formal plans in three or four months for approval to build the proposed project.
A chain-link fence was recently erected around the site at 4118 Landis Avenue. A local commercial and residential development company, Advanced Coastal Homes LLC, has placed a construction trailer on the site.
Jim Burger, managing senior partner of ACH, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Sea Isle’s tax office said that an outfit called 4118 Landis LLC became the owner of the property last year when it bought it from Jeff Di Cesare, a local painting contractor. Di Cesare, who reportedly owns the old red truck parked at the site, sold the land to 4118 Landis LLC for $350,000, according to real estate records.
The empty land actually consists of two side-by-side lots, including the one formerly owned by Di Cesare.
New Jersey property records show that the adjacent empty lot at 4116 Landis Avenue is owned by Marita F. Berkelbach of Philadelphia. Berkelbach also owns Marita’s Homemade Ice Cream Shop at 60th Street and Landis Avenue in Sea Isle.
It was not immediately clear Monday whether Berkelbach’s piece of land at 4116 Landis Avenue will also be developed for the mixed-use project.
The empty property once served as the location for the Avalon Coffee Shop and Jamaican Me Crazy clothing store, which were destroyed by a fire that broke out during a powerful winter storm in January 2016.
Speculation has been growing that the commercially zoned property in such a high-profile downtown location along Landis Avenue would eventually be redeveloped.
There is a trend in Sea Isle for new mixed-use developments that combine commercial space such as restaurants and retail shops on the first floor with upscale condominiums on the second and third stories.
In 2019, vacant land across the street at the opposite corner of 42nd and Landis was redeveloped into a three-story complex featuring commercial space on the street level and 12 luxury condos on the top two floors.
That project, known as Beachside Villas, was built on a site formerly occupied by the Creighton’s Trading Post hardware store, which was destroyed by fire in 2005.
Beachside Villas was developed by A&L LLC, a group that included Sea Isle businessmen Angelo Camano, the owner of the former Angelo’s Ristorante & Pizzeria, and Lou Feola, the owner of CMC Air Conditioning & Heating.
A&L used Advanced Coastal Homes as the builder. ACH is the same company that has placed a construction trailer on the empty land at 4118 Landis Avenue.
