A 24-room boarding house in a deteriorating condition on Blaine Avenue in Seaside Heights will be renovated and converted into five rental or owner-occupied units.
The owner of the Capt. John’s Hotel boarding house property at 45 Blaine Avenue will seek approval from the borough’s planning board to heavily renovate the building, which would bring it into compliance with the town’s zoning ordinance. Under the current code, boarding homes and rooming houses are not permitted. The project needs planning board approval since there are pre-existing conditions on the property which do not conform to the ordinance. A use variance may also be required since transient rentals are not normally permitted in the zone, though officials indicated the renovations would bring the property into closer conformity than its current utilization.
“The plan is to turn this into five units that would be rented out in the summer months,” said attorney Matthew Heagen. “We’re not seeking to have year-round rentals there.”
Though the current owner is looking to rent units seasonally, the application will call for the building’s use to allow owner-occupied units as well, since it could be sold in the future.
The building will not be demolished, Heagen said. Instead, it will be renovated and improved. The basement will become a single unit and many of the rooms will be combined and reworked.
“The second and third floors will be divided in half, approximately,” he said.