Asbury Park Press photo
Above is an Asbury Park Press image from Frank Pallone's pressor regarding the announcement of the beach replenishment project currently underway in Long Branch. The project is running from Lincoln Avenue to Lake Takanassee. The $34 million dollar project may go further north, towards the West End section, if the Army Corp of engineers, "excersises that option". It's interesting that Pallone chose Plaza Ct. That's the dead end street two blocks north of Pullman Avenue and the last before Lake Takanassee.
I first "covered" Plaza Ct. shooting Hurricane Sandy stuff for The New York Times in 2012. I did a lot of before and after's, 9 Plaza Ct., was one of the properties I shot. That property did well for itself after Sandy. If you look at the top photo, with Pallone, the "new" 9 Plaza Ct, is three stories, as opposed to the pre-Sandy two story beachfront home you see above. Below is from the court docket from 2017 outlining the case for a tax appeal based on the homes evaluation after completion in 2015 of the new, taller, and larger house, from casetext.com,
In a fantastic post on the Facebook page, NJ Surfers, Russ Kushner outlines who, and where they are from, the beach replenishment is really helping. To note, not only is the Elberon section a once legendary spot for fishing, ie. Pullman Ave, it is also a mecca for surfers due to the surf breaks there.
So Kushner outlines the 23 properties that are being positively affected by beach replenishment. Our 9 Plaza Ct. is one of them. The following is what I dug up on my own. It has a value of $10.5 million dollars and is owned by 9 Plaza Ct. LLC, who lists it's home base as NY, NY, actually it's 3 East 54th Street. The last known "human" who owned the property was Joann Rosenburg Shalom, who sold the property in 2008 for $1, that's one US dollar, to 9 Plaza Ct LLC % Madison Realty. Prior to the sale Rosenburg was listed on the deed, as part owner, now she may just be in on the deed as part of the LLC. Further, the LLC pays $124,000 annually in real estate taxes.
While not to get to far off the topic, but, I see the Shalom's are busy in the local real estate market. Someone with the last name Shalom, who lists 3 East 54th Street as their address, purchased a nice little home in Deal at 51 Runyan Avenue, above, for a cool $1, yep, a cool one US dollar. That little pad puts them back $77,000 in taxes per year. Now the Shalom's are really, really smart people. They must have invented real estate investing and how to buy cheap, and well sell cheap too. One of the Shalom's, actually Alice, purchased this little cottage at 109 Grant Avenue in Ocean Township, above, for a mere $10, yep, that's 10 US dollars in 1998. Wow! What an investment.
And then there's Sally, another Shalom. Now this propertry cost some money back in the day. She picked up the above nice little corner lot spread for the weekends at 876 Elberon Ave for $3,700,000 in 2007. It's also listed on the deed as a % of E Shalom Q4 Design. The current market value, according to Zillow, is nearly $6 million. Assessed value by the town of Long Branch at $3.8 million, just 300,000 more than the purchase price in 2007....mmmmm. That spread sets them back $76,000 annually for taxes. Now Joann, at 109 Grant Ave, pays $77,000 dollars in taxes, but the spread above costs Sally $50,000 less per year? For a 10,000 square foot house? C'mon man.
Now I'm not picking on anyone here. All the information is public record, as found on nj.parcels.com. What it shows is, one, smart investing, and two, how many legs people with real estate interests in these beachfront towns like Deal and Long Branch have. So back to the information as posted by Kushner. Who is beach replenishment really helping? Of the 23 properties that front the beach
where the $34 million dollar beach dumping project is occurring, only 10 are owned by New Jersey residents or businesses registered in New Jersey. According to the post, the average value of each property is $13 million dollars. Each is "getting" $1.5 million dollars to "protect" their properties, take the $34 million and divide it by 23. That's a nice little hand out to take care of landscaping on 1/4th
of your property. Remember, beach replenishment is done with public money. For this project $24 million comes from the feds and $12 from the State of New Jersey. We have seen over the years how public access to the beaches has been severly restricted. Access to the beach has been blocked by street closures, beach tag only access, private beach clubs, and parking restrictions. Just take below, Pullman Avenue, where during the good years, anglers flocked for
the early morning or late afternoon bunker blitz bites. When the fish are around and up you can't even find a parking spot on either side of Ocean Avenue deep into the neighborhoods. The access to this public resource is shrinking all the while public funds are being used to "protect" private estates from
not only Mother Nature, but from the public as well. Beachfront property owners have consistently inched their way onto public beaches by building their own bulkheads, patios, and entertainment centers down on the beach.
If you told me this was a one and done I might, just might, be down with it. But this is a cycle. It happens every few years. If you don't think it has to do with money and politics you are crazy. I am sure you can trace back somewhere where heavy financial donations to re-election campaings were made by people who benefit from Pallone's magic sand wand.
If you do want to sit and enjoy some of the sand that you paid for in front of Plaza Ct. you better get there early. Long Branch changed the parking regulations on Plaza Ct in 2015, just around the same time the construction on 9 Plaza Ct was done. It's too bad you didn't jump on the neighbors home that went up for "public" sale in March of 2022. That listing for 7 Plaza Ct was sold for $5,600,000 on May, 3, 2022. According to njparcels.com that property too went through the courts from sales and name
changes since it was purchased in 2010 by Shari Belcher for $1,475,000. Haim Belcher wasn't
listed on the deed at that time. But it sold back and forth for $1 dollar in 2012, 2018 before hitting the Mother Lode of $5,600,000 in 2022. It was last year that a home in Princeton at 148 Hunt Drive sold for
$6,285,000 million dollars. The seller was Shari and Haim Belcher. Wow, that's two big real estate sales. Not bad for a couple in their 40's and 50's. Nicely done. But what gets me in the real estate taxes that were paid on the house at 7 Plaza Ct. One house in from the ocean on a street with no public parking, well there are those three spots, no doubtedly filled in the early morning hours by owners from the street.
This is from the official Long Branch tax man website. Taxes paid in 2022, $27,359.39, on a property with an assessed value of $3,378,000 million dollars one house in from the beach? Remember, 9 Plaza Ct, yes on the water, pays $123,000 in taxes. Sally pays $77,000 for a 10,000 square foot house on Elberon Avenue. What's up with that? The "joint" across the street at 2 Plaza Ct, with an assessed value of $6,008,000 pays $85,102 annually. I'm not picking on any homeowner, but more the home and the town. A house that sold in 2022 for $5,600,000 only pays $27,000 in taxes? C'mon man.
Anyway. That was two hours writing this post I'll never get back. What started as an eye-opening Facebook post about sand led me into the world of real estate, LLC's, taxes, and the way properties move around along the Jersey Shore. Smells like the red tide I just left in Florida. Keep em' happy Frankie boy!
