An architectural rendering depicts the proposed project. (Image from Sea Isle City zoning board documents)
By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
The bright yellow building in the heart of downtown Sea Isle City has gone through several iterations since it was constructed in the 1930s.
It once served as the city’s post office before it became the location of a delicatessen. About 30 years ago, it changed into the Shoobies family-style restaurant featuring doo-wop decor. Then after Shoobies was sold in 2021, it was transformed into the Bright Spot Cafe.
Now, there are even more dramatic plans for the property at the corner of 40th Street and Landis Avenue. The old building will be demolished and the site will be redeveloped for a mixed-use project combining restaurant space on the ground level with six luxury condos topping out the second and third floors.
The proposed project is scheduled to come before Sea Isle’s zoning board at its monthly meeting Aug. 5 at 7 p.m. in City Hall. As part of the project, the board will also consider variances for the amount of residential density that is permitted, maximum driveway width and pre-existing non-conforming lot frontage and width, according to zoning documents
The development group calls itself "What’s the Catch LLC” and includes Bright Spot Cafe owner Tom Brower as one of the members.
Bright Spot is a family-friendly, diner-style restaurant known for its old-school food and ambiance. The restaurant is one of the most recognizable buildings in the downtown business district because of its bright yellow color scheme.
The zoning board will consider plans for a mixed-use building consisting of a cafe with indoor-outdoor seating and three walkup, takeout window-style vendors on the first floor, documents show.
An architectural rendering depicts what the project will look like when completed. (Courtesy of Sea Isle City Zoning Board)
In an interview Thursday, Brower said the new cafe would be “an old-school, Jersey Shore family-style diner” offering pizza, burgers, cheesesteaks, Mexican food and other affordable favorites.
“The town needs a family-style, sit-down restaurant and walk-up food court. It checks all of the boxes,” Brower said of the eateries that will be part of the mixed-use development.
He noted that the eateries will be casual enough for people to come directly off the beach “in no shoes and no shirt.”
Although the eateries will be decidedly casual, the six condos proposed on the second and third floors of the development will be upscale, Brower said. They will each include 1,450 square feet of living space, four bedrooms, 2½ baths and ocean views.
Demolition of the existing Bright Spot building is scheduled to happen in September, Brower said. The project will also include the demolition of tiny bungalow-style house that is part of the development site, according to zoning documents.
Brower said the plan is to open the new eateries in time for Memorial Day weekend 2025. The condos will take about 15 months to complete.
A bungalow-style house on 40th Street behind Bright Spot Cafe is part of the development site and will be demolished, according to plans.
When Brower bought the old Shoobies restaurant in 2021, the property was being marketed then as a strong redevelopment site that could capitalize on its high-profile downtown location. He converted Shoobies into the Bright Spot Cafe in 2022.
Brower said that when it retires eventually, he plans to stay in Sea Isle and will look at his mixed-use project as his “legacy” in town.
In recent years, there has been a trend in Sea Isle for mixed-use developments that combine commercial space such as retail shops or restaurants on the first floor with condominiums or apartments on the top two floors.
In 2008, Sea Isle approved a zoning change that allows developers to build commercial properties that also include residential space.
The idea behind the zoning change was to encourage businesses to stay put in town, rather than seeing them disappear to make room for even more housing.
