Asbury Park casino closed due to steel trusses 'rusting away,' mayor says
ASBURY PARK - The nearly century-old Casino building along the boardwalk will be closed indefinitely, shuttering a crucial breezeway between the city and neighboring Ocean Grove just weeks before the summer rush begins.
The city's waterfront developer, Madison Marquette, announced the "difficult decision" to close the building on Monday after an engineering inspection revealed that steel trusses holding up the Casino roof were starting to rust away, Mayor John Moor said.
Moor said he wasn't surprised by the corrosion, given the salty air from the Atlantic Ocean. Madison Marquette should already be thinking about sealing Convention Hall to avoid a similar situation, he said.
“It's because of the open-air environment. The salt air is getting into the steel, and it’s rusting away,” Moor said. “I’ve been asking them for at least 10 years to seal Convention Hall. Maybe now that they have it in writing, they'll do something about it."
More: Asbury Park Convention Hall owner pushed to make repairs. Can iconic building be saved?
The Casino breezeway is a vital pedestrian link between Asbury Park and the Ocean Grove area of Neptune. Its closure leaves late-night pedestrians in a bind: The most direct route between Asbury Park and Ocean Grove is the Wesley Lake promenade and bridge, but both close every day at 12 a.m.
After midnight, pedestrians must walk all the way down Lake Avenue to Main Street in order to cross the lake. Instead of the 300-foot Casino walkway, it's a 1.5-mile journey.
"They're doing the right thing, because it's a public safety issue and the right thing to do is shut it down, but I wish they'd done this a few months ago so it'd be open for the summer," Moor said. "We're a couple of weeks away from Memorial Day, and there's no entrance into Ocean Grove or into Asbury Park from Ocean Grove."
The Casino opened in 1929 as an arcade with rides, games and other boardwalk amusements. But when tourism dried up in the middle of the 20th century, the Casino fell into disrepair along with the rest of the historic boardwalk buildings, including Convention Hall and Palace Amusements, which was demolished in 2004. That same year, the city sold the Convention Hall complex, as well as the casino, carousel and steam power plant, to a subsidiary of Madison Marquette.
In January, the Asbury Park city council issued default notices to Madison Marquette alleging the developer let the casino — as well as Convention Hall and the Paramount Theatre — fall into "a state of disrepair."
Mike Davis has spent the last decade covering New Jersey local news, marijuana legalization, transportation and a little bit of everything else. He's won a few awards that make his parents very proud. Contact him at mdavis@gannettnj.com or @byMikeDavis on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Asbury Park casino closed; Walk to Ocean Grove now over one mile
