Properties selected for an investigation into redevelopment declaration, Seaside Heights, March 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)
A hearing during which evidence will be presented in favor of declaring a troubled Seaside Heights motel a formal redevelopment area – with the potential for condemnation to occur if improvements are not made – was pushed back Monday night after a scheduling conflict with a representative of the motel owner who is objecting to the measure.
The subject of the Cloud 9 Inn, located at 124 Hamilton Avenue, will now be taken up by the planning board at its March 31, 2025 meeting. The hearing was adjourned once before due to a similar scheduling conflict. Planning board attorney Steven Zabarsky said notice of the meeting must be republished in order to ensure members of the public have been notified of the change.
“It’s an important redevelopment project, and I wouldn’t want to have any issues whatsoever,” Zabarsky said.
The hearing will result in a vote by the board to recommend approval or denial of the designation of the property as an area in need of redevelopment to the borough council. If the designation is approved, the borough will be empowered to create a redevelopment plan and solicit proposals for the plan to be implemented. A plan could be implemented by the motel’s current owner or a new owner; as a last resort, the property could be condemned and sold to a new owner. The designation must meet numerous state-mandated criteria, which will be summarized in a report presented by an engineering firm hired by the borough.
Zabarsky said the owner of the motel is planning to bring his own certified planner to the hearing, as well as an attorney, in opposition to the redevelopment proposal.
The motel has been standing since 1984 and was last sold in 2007 at the height of the “real estate bubble” of the time for $2 million, according to county tax records. It is located directly behind the former Karma nightclub site, with the motel’s parking lot separating the inn from the former nightclub, which itself has been torn down and is being redeveloped as a mixed-use commercial and luxury residential complex.
The motel is located on a 140,000 square foot parcel that technically spans two lots.
Cloud 9 Inn was cited as one of 13 properties to be considered as a potential redevelopment area as early as 2022 due to issues with the building stemming from code infractions to law enforcement activity over the course of several years.
The March 31, 2025 meeting of the planning board is a regularly-scheduled meeting that begins at 6 p.m. in the municipal courtroom.
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