By Donald Wittkowski
The pairing of the words “pink” and “gator” almost seems like a riddle or an oxymoron.
One symbolizes femininity, while the other represents one of the most ferocious creatures on the planet.
Paula Lilly, letting out a laugh, explained that there is no deep or mysterious meaning to her decision to name her new boutique in Sea Isle City the Pink Gator.
“I once lived in West Palm,” Lilly said of the Florida beach resort. “I like the color pink. I like gators. So, there we go.”
Pink Gator, the latest retail shop to open in Sea Isle, is one of the centerpieces of two new development projects that are transforming the town’s formerly sleepy Townsends Inlet section with new commercial attractions.
Developers Christopher Glancey and Bob Morris are investing millions of dollars for a retail, restaurant and residential rebirth along the Landis Avenue corridor in the south end of town, close to the Townsends Inlet Bridge connecting Sea Isle and Avalon.
“We hope this will be the commercial center for Townsends Inlet,” Glancey said.
Glancey and Morris began the revitalization of Townsends Inlet last year with their trendy Dunes development, a restaurant, banquet and condo complex on Landis Avenue between 86th and 87th streets.
The Dunes was developed on the site formerly occupied by Busch’s Seafood Restaurant, an iconic landmark that traced its roots in Sea Isle back to the 1880s. While Busch’s is gone, an upscale Doc Magrogan’s Oyster House restaurant has taken its place as part of the Dunes project.
Glancey and Morris are following up on the Dunes with two more mixed-use projects called the Cove and the Cape. The three-story buildings are under construction across the block from each other on Landis Avenue between 85th and 87th streets.
A parking area on Landis between 87th and 88th streets will continue to serve Doc Magrogan’s Oyster House at the Dunes, as well as the new commercial attractions at the Cove and the Cape. All of the new condos will have their own parking spaces underneath the units, Glancey said.
The Cove, farther along than the Cape, features the Pink Gator as its retail attraction. A new restaurant called the Fishin’ Pier Grille is scheduled to open in the Cove next spring. Both the Pink Gator and Fishin’ Pier Grille are located at street level.
Lilly said there are only a few stores operating now in Townsends Inlet. One reason she chose to open her Pink Gator boutique in the Cove was the lack of retail competition nearby, she noted.
“They have nothing here,” she said.
Pink Gator sells clothes, shoes and accessories for women, men and children, including infants and toddlers.
Lilly said she has been enjoying strong business since she opened the store on July 8. She plans to keep Pink Gator open through October, closing down during Sea Isle’s slow off-season. However, she will reopen on a limited basis during the city’s tourist-friendly special events in the fall or winter, such as Girls Weekend and Polar Bear Weekend.
The top two stories of the Cove will include 11 luxury condos catering to Sea Isle’s high-end tourist market. Glancey explained that the three-bedroom condos, scheduled for completion the first week of August, will be rented out to vacationers to create some foot traffic in Townsends Inlet for the retail and restaurant attractions on the Landis Avenue corridor.
The Cape, meanwhile, is scheduled to open in spring 2018. Its commercial anchor will be a new Blitz’s Market, reviving the iconic Sea Isle grocery store that formerly operated in Townsends Inlet for decades.
The new 4,000-square-foot grocery store will occupy the first floor of the building, while the second and third stories will include nine luxury rental condos, each with three bedrooms. Glancey originally had planned to have Blitz’s Market and the nine condos ready this summer, but the timetable was pushed back to concentrate on finishing the Cove project first.
The projects built by Glancey and Morris are compatible with a 2008 change in the city’s zoning law that allows businesses to rebuild commercial properties while adding more residential space.
The idea behind the zoning change was to encourage businesses to stay put in town, instead of seeing them disappear to make room for even more housing. The mixed-use projects include commercial establishments such as bars, restaurants and retail shops operating on the street level, while the top floors feature condos or apartments.
Glancey stressed that the condos he has developed are particularly important to the success of the Dunes, Cove and Cape projects. They are key for attracting vacationers who in turn will patronize the restaurants and retail shops in Townsends Inlet.
“It’s a vital sector of the economy to have people who come here for weeklong vacations,” he said. “It’s very difficult to run a business if you only have customers who come here for weekends.”
