By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
In a shore town where many homes are squeezed into tiny lots, more than an acre of land in Sea Isle City represents a significant piece of property.
Following their sale for $7 million, nine vacant lots totaling 1.19 acres and located only about a block and a half from Sea Isle’s downtown business district, Promenade and beaches will soon be the site of housing construction.
Nine duplexes totaling 18 units are planned for the property. Each duplex will have five bedrooms and 4.5 baths, according to Nick Preuhs, a Sea Isle realtor with Long & Foster who was involved with the property sale.
The price for each duplex has not been set yet. Preuhs noted that other duplex units, depending on their location in Sea Isle, are moving in the $1.5 million to $2 million range.
“It’s a great opportunity for buyers who want something new,” he said of the duplexes that will be built.
The property is concentrated at the corner of 39th Street and Central Avenue and on 40th Street between Central and Cini avenues.
Sold as a package deal, all nine lots were bought during an online auction in March 2022 for $7 million by a local development group headed by City Councilman Frank Edwardi, Preuhs said.
The vacant land was once the site of a gas manufacturing plant that operated in Sea Isle more than 100 years ago. The site has undergone environmental cleanup for soil and water contamination, setting the stage for housing construction.
“These lots are completely remediated and are normal like any other full-size lots on the island,” Preuhs said of the cleanup.
The utility company Jersey Central Power & Light 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.
In order to receive state regulatory approval to sell the land, JCP&L had to clean up the contamination. The gas manufacturing plant operated in Sea Isle from 1889 to the 1920s.
Since 1987, JCP&L conducted environmental investigations of the site while working on cleanup plans in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the sale document said.
Although the land was auctioned last year, the transaction was pending approval by the state Board of Public Utilities because the property was owned by a utility and required environmental cleanup.
The BPU gave its approval in October 2022. Edwardi’s development group, known as Noodles 1 LLC, recently finalized the purchase to take ownership of the land. Edwardi could not be reached for comment Monday.
Now that the sale has been finalized, construction is expected to begin “ASAP,” Preuhs said.
“It will be one lot at a time, one duplex at a time,” he said in an interview. “It’s going to be a lengthy project.”
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 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 once had a sign on the fence 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.
Separate from the land sale, JCP&L also sold off four homes that 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 a meeting last October, 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.
The homes went up for sale at a time when Sea Isle’s real estate market was still red hot earlier in 2022. Reflecting a boom fueled by the shore being seen as a safe haven from the COVID-19 pandemic, Sea Isle has become a million-dollar housing market.
The median sales price for homes in Sea Isle has jumped well above $1 million, although the market has begun slowing down somewhat following its peak, Preuhs said.
