Holy Spirit Church in Asbury Park will be demolished in six months, replaced with homes

ASBURY PARK - For 114 years the Holy Spirit Church was a community hub for Catholics in Asbury Park, but after to a court ruling the historic building could soon be demolished to build six residential homes.

"Within the next six months the building should be coming down," said Joseph Hanna, co-founder and president of the current property owner, Mountain View Development.

The developer initially wanted to build residential units inside the closed Gothic church, which would have included a public space featuring modern art from local artists, but the city rejected those plans. Then he proposed tearing it down to be replaced by homes, only to be rejected by the planning board. He then filed suit.

On Oct. 31, the court ruled to vacate the Asbury Park Planning Board's denial of the application and grant relief to the developer's plan, because it conformed with city ordinances, giving the board no legal reason to reject it.

See the full order at the bottom of this story.

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When asked if the city would appear the court decision, Mayor John Moor said "to the best of my knowledge absolutely not."

"I met with city attorneys back in January and February and the decision then was to grant JLD their proposal. The planning board vote was probably wrong and it should be approved as they applied for it," Moor said. "Now we are into November and why this is just being resolved is beyond me."

'This is going to continue to happen'

"We are remaining optimistic that the city will come to their senses and say, "'OK, let's have a conversation,' but that has not been the case so far," Hanna said.

He added that he "thinks everyone is doing the best they can," but things haven't worked out.

"It is important for other cities, municipalities, townships, mayors, professionals, developers, to see what happened over here and figure out a better way to save these buildings, because this is going to continue to happen," Hanna said.

The church is located on the northwestern corner of the intersection of Second Avenue and Bond Street, less than one mile from the Asbury Park Boardwalk. Existing structures on the 1.1-acre lot include the two-story church, a three-story residential building (the rectory) and a detached brick garage.

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The property was previously owned by the Holy Spirit Church, which was overseen by the Catholic Diocese of Trenton.

"The Catholic Church has diminished quite a bit. I think a lot of churches have (diminished during the pandemic) and these magnificent historical buildings are going to be left behind," Hanna said. "They are going be sold … most likely to a developer."

He added if people understand what is happening, then maybe next time this won't happen, "whether it is putting together the right historical preservation board or figuring out a way somehow, public or private, to be able to repurpose these historical buildings."

"We have a lot of history in New Jersey, and I hope it gets protected in the future," Hanna said.

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'My heart would ache'

During the Nov. 8 meeting of the City Council, lawyer Thomas De Seno criticized the developer's plans, saying he would prefer to see if knocked down than converted into another use.

"I noticed that there's this propaganda that the developer of the property has contacted media and saying that they want to save the church. By 'save,' they mean gut the entire inside and make it condos and a coffee bar or something like that," De Seno said. "It is silly to say that there plan to put condos inside there would save the church. They are destroying the church."

Earlier this year De Seno filed a lawsuit against the Trenton Diocese to stop the destruction of the church.

"As a very vocal parishioner of Holy Spirit about this issue, I can tell you, I'd rather not see the building there," De Seno said. "Every time I would ride past that (church) with a Starbucks inside of it, my heart would ache. I would rather, parishioners would rather, it just not be there."

He added that Asbury Park needs an ordinance for historic preservation.

"We look back at prior generations for losing (historic buildings)," De Seno said. "People are going to look at us the same way, including myself. I didn't save that church, so it is on me too."

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Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn said the ongoing litigation limits what city officials can say.

"We also can't talk about how frustrating the (perception is) that we are the big bad wolf trying to take down this church. So, it is very frustrating for us not to be able to speak on issues involved in litigation," she said.

For decades, the church served Asbury Park’s Roman Catholic community. However, in recent years, the parish confronted several challenges, including declining church attendance and financial difficulties.

Holy Spirit School closed in 1980 due to low enrollment numbers. Then Holy Spirit Parish began to eliminate certain ministries. Most recently, in 2014, the Holy Spirit Parish merged with two nearby parishes to form the Church of Mother Mercy Parish.

After the merger, Mercy Parish retained and operated two houses of worship in Asbury Park; the Holy Spirit Church and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. In October 2020, Mother Mercy Parish announced that Holy Spirit would be closed and sold.

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Representatives of the Mother Mercy Parish explained that they simply could not continue to financially support and maintain two separate churches and the only way for them to continue serving Asbury Park was to consolidate operations. Proceeds from the sale of the church will be used to make much-needed capital improvements to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and the Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, according to the lawsuit.

Church services were last held on the property in 2021.

The Holy Spirit Church is currently vacant and pursuant to Roman Catholic faith restrictions can never be reconsecrated or used as a Roman Catholic Church again.

MON-L-2989-22 - Order Vacating Resolution of Denial & Remanding w. Instruction to GRANT Application (10.31.... by Dennis Carmody on Scribd

Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. @CharlesDayeAPP Contact him: CDaye@gannettnj.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Holy Spirit Church Asbury Park will be destroyed, replaced with homes