New Life for Asbury Park Landmark Building in Downtown

Yvonne Johnson says there’s nothing like an address in a historic building to market a business, which in her case is creating fashionable wigs for clients.

“I told my grandmother: “Nana, I”m moving into the Steinbach building,’ ” she remembers saying last Thanksgiving when she first moved into her $2,300-a-month space.

New York developer Carter Sackman opened up the renovated Steinbach building for business two years ago, preserving the historic architectural details of the old department store as he created 22,000 square feet of retail space on the first floor and 63 lofts, apartments and penthouses on three upper floors and the roof. The original fifth floor was destroyed in a 1989 fire.

The triangular building, which fills the city block bounded by Cookman and Bangs avenues and Emory Street, dates back to 1897 and was the hub of the downtown until Steinbach’s moved to Seaview Square mall in 1979.

Old Man Rafferty’s, the popular New Brunswick-based restaurant, became the first retail business. Owner Mark Jakuboski opened his 9,300-square-foot restaurant two years ago this month.

Today, the Steinbach building is nearly filled up, with the last retail spaces being leased in June, except for one small 700-square-foot space still available. All but one of the 63 apartments are rented.

Last week, several of Sackman’s tenants said they were certain the developer would soon buy the mostly vacant two-story building of storefronts and offices that stretches along the 500 block of Cookman directly across the street. It has sat undeveloped by RDR Properties.

Sackman did not return telephone calls, but Trip Brooks, a company representative who oversees the Steinbach and other nearby Sackman properties, said no deal has been finalized. RDR partner Robert Ranuro would only say talks are going on with developers.

Peter James Calafiore, who opened his flower shop at the Steinbach building in June, said it must be Sackman “or someone of his magnitude” who buys the vacant building.

“This is the last piece in the puzzle,” Calafiore said last week. “You know what this is going to make it like? Through the roof. The heyday returns.”

Downtown “anchor”

“The Steinbach building has always been an anchor in the downtown, and the fact that it’s almost full right now brings it back to that status,” said Thomas Gilmour, the city’s director of commerce.

“So that helps the whole downtown and really makes the vacant buildings across the street very viable locations in the downtown right now,” Gilmour said. “I think that whoever is able to secure that building would have a fairly easy time in attracting new tenants to the city.”

Tricia Blair, who, with her brother, Anthony Gordon, opened Il Pavone Gelateria & Caffe in the Steinbach building in December 2008, said their location next to Rafferty’s and near the two restaurants RDR opened three summers ago — the Brick Wall Tavern and Market in the Middle — has been a good fit for their Italian gelato, gourmet coffees and desserts.

“I felt if I didn’t get into Asbury Park now, I’d never get in,” Blair said.

In June, Candy Galekovic and Anthony Primo opened up their combined home decor businesses — hers is Candy’s Cottage Coastal Living and his is Primo Glass — in a large space next to Il Pavone.

They relocated from the Shoppes at the Arcade in the 600 block of Cookman, attracted by the storefront exposure they’d get at the Steinbach building.

Chakra Salon and Spa on Bangs Avenue also opened in June with owner Raymond Vail paying a little over $3,000 a month for 1,700 square feet. The businesses that opened previously include Johnson’s Complements hair replacement salon, optometrist William Fridel’s All Eyes On You boutique, and Intelekt, a designer and manufacturer of custom trade show exhibits and commercial interiors.

Brooks said the going retail rate is $18 a square foot.

“Carter did a good job here,” said Thomas Bruno, a retired New York City firefighter and actor who has rented his $1,450-a-month one-bedroom apartment on the second floor since May 2008. We’re all family. It’s a taste of city living without the subways and rats.”

Brooks said the apartment rentals were lowered last year and the range is approximately $1,100 for a studio, $1,300 to $1,800 for a one-bedroom and $2,000 to $2,600 for two bedrooms. The apartments have to remain rentals for at least five years under terms of historic-site tax credits Sackman received in the renovation process.

The Post and the Press

Sackman also renovated the Post building, a stone’s throw from Steinbach’s and the city’s original post office. He also renovated the former Asbury Park Press building next to the Post.

Brooks said three of the 18 two-bedroom, two-bath condominiums priced from $370,000 to $625,000 in the Post building are sold.

“We probably came down 20 percent in our price, and that’s pretty drastic,” Brooks said, adding the condos had been priced before the market downturn.

Now, he said the Post building has just received FHA approval for a 3.5 percent down payment.

“When I first started selling in March, people said, “We’re going to look around and wait to see if values continue to go down,’ ” Brooks said. “Now people think they’ve stabilized and are going to go up from here. I think if interest rates go up, we’ll see some real movement.”

Like Steinbach’s, the Press building filled up. Tenants include engineering and dance companies, the city’s school district offices, ReVision Theatre, and a typographics and illustration studio. In the fall, the Yoga Basin, a juice bar and yoga studio, is set to open.