Seaside Heights Motel to be Replaced With Four Buildings, 18 Townhomes

The former Belmont Motel, on Sheridan Avenue in Seaside Heights, Nov. 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)

An aging Seaside Heights motel that was demolished through a state-funded grant program to rid the borough of blighted properties will become home to 18 residential units divided between four buildings.

The borough’s planning board recently adopted a resolution formally approving the proposal for the former Belmont Motel, located at 128 Sheridan Avenue, approximately across the street from the borough’s police headquarters. The developer, Shah Motel LLC, had matched its proposal to an earlier-considered redevelopment plan. The planning board, when it heard testimony on the matter, provided its approval to a variance to construct a six-foot high fence in the side yards, where fences no higher than four feet are normally permitted.

While the property is not a formally-designated area in need of redevelopment, it is the subject of a “rehabilitation plan” that calls for the now-demolished building, which was aging and increasingly in a state of disrepair, to be replaced by new construction.

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Danielle Kinback, the attorney representing the property owner, said the 18 townhome units which will be built on the site fully comply with the rehabilitation plan to replace the 45-room motel.

The Belmont Motel, slated for demolition in Seaside Heights, N.J., Dec. 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

The former Belmont Motel, on Sheridan Avenue in Seaside Heights, Nov. 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)

According to the presentation by a group of professionals hired by the property owner, the units will be contained in four buildings. Plans call for nine, 2- bedroom units and nine, 3 bedroom units. The developer plans on providing 36 off-street parking spaces plus 3 spaces for electric vehicles.

Conor Daly, engineer on the project, said the new homes wold fulfill the aesthetic goals of the rehabilitation process while being more environmentally-friendly.

“The motel was almost 100 percent impervious, and we are reducing that coverage to about 93 percent,” said Daily.

In 2021, the borough council authorized utilizing a small portion of a $1 million state grant for the demolition of the motel, Mayor Anthony Vaz said at the time. The governing body agreed to fund up to 75 percent of the cost of demolishing the multi-story motel, up to $50,000.